


My Azalea

by SerArthurHeath



Category: citrus - サブロウタ | citrus - Saburouta
Genre: Angst, Canon Lesbian Relationship, F/F, First Time, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Lesbian Sex, Spoilers, Submission
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2020-02-16 15:33:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 42,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18694300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerArthurHeath/pseuds/SerArthurHeath
Summary: After the mistakes and pain of Chapter 36, eventually Mei and Yuzu refind what they have lost, and understanding each other heal and form what the other needs through their first time completely giving themselves to each other.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> THIS WORK CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE END OF CITRUS
> 
>  
> 
> I have only watched the anime but know the story of the end of the manga, and this story takes place shortly before the very end. 
> 
> Also trigger warnings for implied (in Mei's past) and discussed sexual abuse at least,
> 
> This work looks at the possible first time between the two after a reconciliation, and references the emotional/psych issues each character has and tries to look at a little resolution, as well as some steamy sex. For reasons that are made clear, Yuzu wants to be a sub for Mei but Mei remains incredibly gentle with her - this is submissiveness without any other BDSM.
> 
> The best thing for me about Citrus was how both characters start off (and remain to a degree) imperfect. Yuzu borders on obsession early on, with little thought about how that impacts Mei, and Mei's inability to express herself healthily and the way she has been at least abused lead her to definitely sexually abuse Yuzu early on, but as they learn to understand each other their relationship makes them both so much better, and highlights that both were damaged rather than bad people, who could help rather than hurt each other. And I think, with the caveat that abuse, even when it leads to good, cannot be condoned, it makes both characters interesting and their relationship beautiful. I hope I capture some of that.
> 
> Edit: I have now read the Manga and Citrus + so far. I still apologise if I come up with anything that + contradicts.
> 
> I still think Citrus would be much better appreciated if we had more insight into Mei- for me, sexual assault at the start of the story apart, she is a really vulnerable character. That doesn't mean Yuzu owes it to help her, and the implications of the start of their relationship still concern me but I love how it has become something beautiful and healing for both of them, and hope that was an intentional contrast from the author

_Okay. It's another day. You can do this. It still hurts, but one day the pain will be better_

Yuzu's daily mantra rang through her mind as she finished her shower. Dragging herself up for another day of pretending things were ok. Missing everything she had lost. Every day her heart yearned for what might have been and what had been, but she knew she had to accept what Mei had decided, and take the scant solace of knowing she really had helped fix her wounded soul at least a little bit.

In the background, there was a strange knocking sound, muffled by the patter of water bouncing off the tiles. It was probably the pipes. Or imagined. Oh well. Yuzu would check the heater later, she didn't have much planned for today, her mother was going to be away until the end of the weekend, and she could use the distraction, any distraction from the background of her loss.

_She just still couldn't choose you, and choose herself, over what everyone else demanded of her. Or you weren't enough._

That voice she faded out, cruel but trying to understand, she didn't have time or energy to humour it any more. She was good enough. Or at least she had to believe she was or could be, or how could she step into another empty day?

_Or she doesn't love you._

She shut up that treacherous, tiny voice as hard as she could, screamed it silent in her mind. If she listened to that, it would break her spirit along with her broken heart. Yuzu blinked out the hot tears. Things were complicated, but she believed the love that Mei had shared with her, hard as the other girl had found it to express openly. She couldn't blame Mei. For any of it. Her sister, her love had been through a lot, and though in many ways she was strong, there was only so much she could change.

 

As Yuzu wrapped up her hair in one towel and put on her dressing gown, she heard a frantic repeat of the knocking she had thought she had imagined a minute ago. It was the front door, and there was a desperation in the rhythm. Frowning, aware she wasn't best dressed for company or expecting any, Yuzu tightened the gown, stepped out and, with yet more anxious, now longer and louder and faster, knocking coming, undid the latch and opened the door.

To a tear-stained face, one she had seen every time she closed her eyes since she had left, with just a letter to break her news and break Yuzu's heart. A perfect face, that despite hurting her to her core, Yuzu could not stand to see hurting like this.

"Yuzu... I know you don't owe me anything, and you might hate me," Her voice was hoarse and strained, by tears but also by the effort this must be causing her. "Please let me in. I know I'm bad at it, and it's far too late, but I need to talk"

Mei...


	2. Chapter 2

"Mei..."

Yuzu's green eyes were as wide, and as lovely as Mei remembered, recollected in her every dream and her every regretful reflection on what she should have done differently. Sadder than she could ever have let herself imagine them to be though, and full of genuine shock as well as pain.

 

_I have hurt her. The most important thing I have ever found in my life, and I'm so broken that I have caused her such pain. I don't deserve her, not one bit, she has only helped me and I have only harmed her._

 

"Come in. Whatever you have to say, know right now. I do not, and could never, ever, hate you, or turn you away with tears in your eyes".

_How can I have ever held so generous a spirit? So pure a soul as her? She shines with that inner as well as outer beauty._

 

"I... I'm sorry. For so much. I, I meant every single word I wrote in that letter." She took a shuddering breath "I'm sorry that I was so weak I couldn't say those words out loud. I'm sorry I felt I had to pick my family's future over you. That I left you. That I hurt you."

"Mei, I..." Mei cut her off. She had to, if she stopped talking it would be too easy to let the words slip away from her heavy mouth forever. Yuzu's eyes were still full of pain, but the tone of them had softened. Mei knew this was now pain not for Yuzu herself, but for Mei, and worry for her, emerald irises basically luminous with concern. The undeserved love there, the enveloping sensation of this wonderful girl's infinity capacity for love, it overwhelmed her as it always had, making itself known and flowing through her veins and offering her shame but also hope.

"You have helped me so much, made me so much more able to live. Made me feel, warmth and desire and pain. Feel everything so much more. I am full of you. And the marriage is off." That made Yuzu's mouth drop open, and expression in the windows of her gaze changed to confusion, and maybe a glimmer of hope. Gods, it hurt so much to realise how bereft of that they had been. Now the words she found so hard to say out loud, the truest words she knew and what she had to say, at last.

"I, I, I care for you, in so many ways. Sister, friend, healer, lover. If you will have me, I am yours, forever from now on. I understand if you cannot forgive the choices I made, but I am asking nonetheless."

 


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't understand. When I proposed, last evening, and you stayed silent, and let me walk away, I was sure that despite all the pain it caused you, you had decided you had to go ahead and put everyone else, your family, ahead of yourself again. Why didn't you stop me leaving then?"

"There was too much going on inside to let it out. I was torn in two, torn between two things I couldn't reconcile. In the end, I've never expected to be happy myself, not for years, so I could sacrifice me to do what was expected and make everyone else happy. But you made it clear you couldn't let go, and that you would never be happy if I went ahead. And I couldn't live with your sadness. Maybe that's selfish, but maybe I need to learn to be selfish. And it was a sign that we both hurt so much over this, so I thought and warred with myself and realized I couldn't let you go and I couldn't stay away. My ex-fiancee was actually very understanding." Mei was exhausted letting all that out. After the outburst of emotion yesterday when she had shouted at Yuzu, then let out her love and hate and struggled with this fear that the world could never let them be together, and then the internal struggle as Yuzu had found her ring, said words Mei had longer to hear but after all that lacked the strength to act upon, it had taken until now to get the energy to come and see Yuzu again, an interval she knew had probably broken her sister's heart. So many words, emotional ones and rare for her, again now had left her drained again .

Yuzu looked shocked, then that expression melted into pure happiness. 

"If you will give yourself to me, I will always, always have you. It's all I want, it's what makes me whole."

Whole. That was what had finished it off, her decision yesterday. Her entire life, especially the past few years, Mei had felt broken and empty, and it had crept up on her that Yuzu's attention had made her happy and full of something for the first time she could remember. Leaving had made the emptiness worse than ever before and she felt whole, truly whole, for the first time when Yuzu had found her ring around her neck and promised her eternal love. Mei didn't deserve or need happiness, but it only seemed right to feel like a whole person.

Unable to verbalise how she felt, how happy she felt, already a rare emotion, after fatiguing her social energy in coming here, Mei could only hug her wonderful, giving older sister as emotion escaped down her face in wet silver droplets.

They held each other in silence for a minute, feeling their mutual warmth and the hammering of their hearts.

Mei pulled away, feeling her reins of control coming back to her, and not quite finished with what she had to say or do today.

"At any rate, Yuzu, you sure were quick to mention marriage."

Now Yuzu, her returned optimism that epitomised her and captured Mei's heart, stammered and her face turned to fire.

"Well, um, it seems viable in the near future!"

Content that she could still tease her sister, confession or not, Mei was ready to drop the subject, but Yuzu continued.

"Anyway, wasn't it you who said I should walk tall with unfounded confidence?"

That came as a surprise, almost profound. And prophetic for what Mei planned next, what had her making herself more vulnerable than she had ever felt, which was a lot given the last 24 hours.

"I did. Yuzu.. "

Unable to verbalise her feelings without old prompts, Mei replayed the old mistake she had made, blessed in the end but inexcusable, where she had forced herself on Yuzu and stolen the kiss than enraptured them both. It had been a way of diffusing tension, a common type of thing for Mei for whom open talk about her feelings was nearly impossible now and had been worse then, though Yuzu had since taught her, to her shame, that this kind of thing was unacceptable without implied consent at least. That had been hard to grasp, seeing how little anyone before that had ever cared for Mei's consent.

She needed some of that diffusion now and that unfounded confidence, and she was sure Yuzu wouldn't hold it against her in the circumstances, emerald eyes shining with life, beautiful face radiating purity and kindness, the best soul she knew. So she stole another kiss, this time knowing how they both felt, with passion behind it, catching Yuzu by surprise and pushing her down so that Mei knelt gasping over her desperate body.

"Yuzu, I love you!" There, she had said it.


	4. Chapter 4

Just before she had said it though, Yuzu had asked her to wait.

_Oh no. I've done it again, haven't I? Pushed the boundaries physically without her permission._

"Sorry. I guess being forceful with you takes away from the meaning of saying that. Pretend it didn't happen..."

"No, not at all! I love you too, Mei"

Green eyes were now shining with tears, face lit up with joy. Mei knew Yuzu had been waiting and yearning for those words, and it made Mei truly happy to be able to express them at last, to know in herself and to accept that she truly, utterly meant them to the depth of her heart. She felt her eyes go wet again too, for yet another time today. She took in her darling sister's face, all innocence and devotion. Those sparkling eyes, cream skin and cute button nose, deep pink lips that begged Mei to kiss them.

She did. Such a delicate thing of purity, pale, simple but beautiful. Like the flower of her namesake.

"My little Yuzu blossom. Perfect, elegant flower." _Had she said that outloud?_

Yuzu blushed. Yes, she had. 

"A metaphor? From Mei? This must be a special day then!" A sly grin appeared on Yuzu's face. "If I'm that flower then which one are you, I wonder?"

Mei felt a turn in her stomach. She knew this, a cruel jibe from a past lover, well, person who had stolen physical intimacy from her and she had felt too powerless to refuse, had given her the answer.

"A girl who, um, kissed me for a while, said I was like an Azalea. Rare beauty, almost otherworldly. But toxic." She cast her eyes down. The girl had been right, look at what loving her had gotten poor Yuzu.

But the optimistic girl before her now just smiled.

"She may have meant it as an attack, but your beauty is heavenly like the flower. And you know in medicine of all sorts there is a saying- 'the dose maketh the poison'. Azalea is only toxic if you take too much or mishandle it, just like you. In small doses, we use it to heal, and it symbolises nostalgia for where one comes from." She kissed her. "So it's more apt than she knew. We just have to handle you with care."

How could she ever have thought this perfect creature had been silly or superficial? She was simple, yes, but her overflowing, open heart was touched with wisdom as well as compassion. Mei was speechless, unable to comprehend the salvation she felt in her lover's words. Finally, knowing with the thoughtful generosity her lover had just shown, she knew she was ready and spoke.

"Yuzu... If you are ready, I am ready. To make love to you. I love you, which you said you needed us to have before sex, and I want to give myself to you utterly, and to show you how much you have done and mean to me"


	5. Chapter 5

"Mei..." Yuzu's face was twisted, conflicted. "I've wanted to hear those words, to have you for so long, but...  "

Not for the first time, Mei felt absolutely confused by the seemingly simple girl in front of her. "I thought you wanted to make sure this is about love? It is! Let me show you that!"

"That was a part of it. I want our first time to be when we were sure we loved each other, that this was serious and not just infatuation, yes, and I know we have that. And we understand each other better than ever, better than everyone, but still not nearly as much as I want to. We've just gotten back together, after a traumatic parting. It might seem cathartic to seal this wonderful finding each other once more physically, but that makes it yet another time you are using it for something other than itself. Let's not rush. I dedicate my heart and body to you, it won't be going anywhere."

"Do you want to wait for marriage then, Yuzu? Isn't it a bit inconsistent to rush into that but hold off on this?"

Yuzu looked deep into her eyes, which she knew she couldn't keep some hurt and confusion out of, and touched her face tenderly.

"I don't want to wait that long necessarily, just when it is natural and we really are ready. I don't want to rush into marriage, but in proposing I've made it clear that I know that's where I want us to and we will end up. I also know that we will do the same with, ah, sex, but like marriage that doesn't mean we have to do it right now. Remember the Azalea, my love. Handle with care, don't overdo it at once. I know that rushing things with you, obsessing over what things are right now rather than giving you space and letting us understand each other, doing that hurt both of us. Several times. And I'm sure that sexual stuff for you in the past has been done for reasons you weren't really happy with, right? Doing it to prove something to me or make me happy is the same thing, appeasing others or numbing pain, letting people use you even if that person is me, without thinking about what effect it will have on you. Have you ever had sex because it was what you wanted? Let's not rush".

Overwhelmed by the level of understanding Yuzu had reached of her, and the insights she had somehow glimpsed into her past, Mei could only nod meekly. Tired out, agreeing not to go further yet but needing each other's touch, the girls fell asleep entwined in each other's arms.


	6. Chapter 6

Several weeks passed quickly. Mei and Yuzu had made a promise to learn to understand each other even more, and Mei was glad in the end that they were waiting for now. 

They spent a breadth of experiences with each other, as sisters and as girlfriends, one day shopping, helping each other at school (Mei had to stop Yuzu from overstretching herself to impress her there but once she hit the right balance it was amazing how adept Yuzu was at many subjects with her mind set to it. That she had worried about being associated with her at the start of school seemed so long ago), quietly spending time in each other's company. They even revisited the old theme park her father had taken her as a little girl. 

What all this time taught Mei was that for her happiness and being near Yuzu were almost inseparable. Something about her warm spirit, her hasty jumping into things and her soft heart, as well as the vibrancy of her energy that made her already attractive features glow with celestial light, it produced a sense of joy that radiated off her and into Mei. She continued to be distracted with her and by her, but now that she accepted the distraction it wasn't a burden on her mind but something to lighten the day, not detracting from her work or writing or her life. Equally, Yuzu seemed delighted to spend her moments with Mei, each differently protective of the other as ever. Their sexual attraction was building up tension though. They shared tender kisses, and even, when one couldn't take it any longer, caressing touches over the other's curves, but Mei caught Yuzu looking hungrily at her as they undressed each night, and in the bath. Mei found herself in the unique position of finding herself, half-daydreaming, staring at Yuzu's firm, shapely rear as her sister edged ahead of her as usual on their regular runs, lighter hair flowing behind her, tantalising her to leap and pin her down.

First thing to sort out before anything could go further was to confirm the support of their loved ones. Over the weeks, they came out, as gay and then as in love in this taboo way with their step-sister, to friends and family and, more subtly with held hands and silent looks, society. Not every aspect of the latter had been supportive, but to Mei's surprise and relief everyone who mattered was on their side. Yuzu might be naive, and Mei loved that as an extension of her natural optimism and seeing the best in people, but sometimes her innocence left her wiser than those jaded by life. She wasn't sure anything could ever jade Yuzu, though to her shame she was sure that she had been the closest thing to doing so.

Everyone they asked, even those Mei was sure would disapprove, gave their blessing for their love with a smile, and when asked why the answers were all a variation on "because you love each other" and "she makes you/you make her happy". Mei once hadn't been sure that was enough, but if they had chosen this path, then the happiness would have to outweigh the pain.

One day a parent had found out about their relationship and complained to grandfather, something that caused cold fear to grip Mei's insides. Could their love survive an assault on family honour, in the Chairman's eyes? But he sent the woman away, stating "if two young people in love and making each other better is dishonour, then let there be more dishonour in this cold world." Emboldened by that, Mei had that evening, after much contemplation, turned to Yuzu and said:

"We had better hurry up. If we are going to be married soon, there's a lot of work to be done".

The light exploding onto Yuzu's face was enough by itself to make up for any lifetime of pain their taboo love might bring.

However, her dear features went serious after a moment, and Mei felt filled with concern.

"Mei, dear, we need to talk. About, um, sex."

She sat them both down, and stroked Mei's hair, noting her anxiety.

"It's not a scary talk. Just one we need to have before we do anything. It's very scary for me, because I know so little of it outside of my, ah, magazines you saw," that came with a deep blush, "but I know that you have done stuff. Was it like proper sex or just other bits? I know this is personal but please humour me."

Taken aback, Mei answered that she had never had sex with a man, but had done sexual things, that for two girls might be seen as sex, with both a few boys (well, men) and girls.

"I thought so. And, am I right, in pretty much all of those you were submitting, doing it for someone else where probably a bit of you didn't want to? Either appeasing their feelings you didn't share to avoid conflict, or, I think, at least once something they took without asking." Heart aching, at the threshold of flashbacks of Amamiya telling her he'd be gentle as he touched her, dry, down below, at an older girl pinning her down, stealing a kiss and lowering her lips, telling her she'd enjoy this, several times where she was kissed, unasked, first and just let it happen and let it lead to whatever act helped numb the pain of her life and shame of her submission, Mei could only nod again. How did she know? 

"How do I know? Honey, I know you better than anyone I think, and I can add two plus two together... I just want you to know, when you are ready, I will never use you. Never do anything where you aren't in control of what happens. If I ever hurt you, physically or emotionally, it might be that I was thoughtless but I will never knowingly cause you pain. You are safe with me now, and when we make love I want you to enjoy it. Not just for it to stop pain, but to cause you joy. Do you promise me to seek that too? To let me fix this too?"

Another nod. "Yuzu... I..." "Shhh, I know. You don't have to say it." 

No. "I do. For me. I love you. Really, truly."

"I know. We are nearly ready, I think. But we should probably prepare for the summer break trip soon! Let's rest then pack for the flight to visit pa next week".

 


	7. Chapter 7

The summer break came at the end of the week, and for the first time both Mei and Yuzu would have the chance to experience a holiday in a completely different country. Their Papa had been in Europe for business, finishing up in London, so Mama and the two girls were set to spend two whole weeks in the UK (well, with a weekend in Paris) all together.

Their small family had a fantastic vacation, some with the three ladies and sometimes with Papa, visiting museums (the V and A had been on Yuzu's must see list), shops from Oxford Street to Hamleys (where Mei nearly wept with excitement seeing the size of some of the toy bears), Eurodisney for a day and the sights of Paris for another, the English countryside and distinguished Cambridge, various parks, tourist sights and the such- delighted by the assortment of wonderfully alien places. Both girls enjoyed, in their very different approaches (Mei refined, of few words but reading and listening, Yuzu proudly testing her speaking skills), demonstrating their excellent English. They watched Les Miserables as a family, the sad love stories appealing to Yuzu and the rich music and literary basis to Mei. They dined, despite their friends insistence that English food was terrible, at a variety of tasty places Shou had picked out, enjoying some decent if pricey Japanese style food as well as surprisingly delicious British pub food like fish and chips, curry (Mei having the mildest on the menu), and enjoying the breadth of cuisine available in London. Papa had explained that 20 years ago London deserved its reputation for uninspiring food but things had changed a lot and now the variety of decent food rivalled anywhere outside of Singapore.

At the end of the stay, Papa and Mama were due to head back together via New York, where Shou had some work to do and they wanted to spend time together alone. This meant, after a lot of consideration, they were happy to leave Mei and Yuzu for the final long weekend together in London, with money out aside for them, as long as they checked in daily and kept together and stayed out of rough areas. 

After the strictness of their school, this freedom was terrifying and utterly liberating for Mei, who felt almost overpowered by the sheer choice available. So Yuzu, thinking what both would like, took the reins.

After saying farewell to their parents on Friday, she surprised Mei with tickets to London Zoo, where she smiled as her sister was enchanted by the cute animals. Then they went on a boat trip along the river, dinner in a trendy market, and went to a classical musical concert. Mei, who had been worried about what kinds of things her girlfriend would take her to, was impressed with her tasteful restraint, a touched by her attempt to base their weekend on what she would enjoy, such that by the end of the night in their shared double bed in their comfy London hotel she felt the burning warmth of this thing that feels like love stronger than ever before, fortified by the clear understanding and consideration Yuzu was showing she had for her.

The next day was a leisurely one, walking in Regent's Park hands entwined, calling their parents, and seeing some art, until Yuzu sprang her final surprise: after a wholesome Italian meal, Yuzu produced top tickets for the musical she had been going on about for ages - Wicked.

Once the show started, Mei was initially disappointed. The story seemed to lack depth, and the music was more Yuzu's kind of thing than hers. However as it progressed she became sucked into some of the cleverness, despite the foreign language, and power of the songs and slowly started to empathize with the recognisable if exaggerated plights of the two main characters, characters who did just enough to remind her of Yuzu and herself. Once she saw that parallel she had to glare at her sister to see if that had been part of her intent, but Yuzu was engrossed in the theatre, mouthing along to the songs she had apparently been listening to on her phone for weeks.

Then the show hit its emotional climax, the simple but powerful harmony of For Good, and Mei lost herself entirely in these two different ladies who had been through so much, maybe no romantic love but otherwise a mirror of her relationship with Yuzu in many ways. In a song that might as well be called "Mei's letter to Yuzu". The reflection of herself and their selves in the beautiful music, the tale of almost loss and the pain but eventually worthwhile nature of love, broke through her barriers, barriers she barely remembered were there, and alongside her crying, smiling Yuzu, she wept happy, sad tears.

They walked home together with Mei clasping Yuzu's hand as firmly as she ever had, mind made up that this was the time at last to cement herself physically with her love as closely as she had been emotionally bound. This wasn't her first time, as she had told Yuzu before, but it was her first time looking for happiness alone, doing this with love, and she was as nervous as she had been before her first time, more so given that was basically stolen from her.

 

With purpose giving her courage, she latched the door in the hotel room with careful controlled breathing and sat her innocent, radiant lover down.

"Yuzu blossom... I know it's been a long journey. I am ready to give myself to you, body and soul, to love you with everything I have. To make you feel how I feel now, happier than I ever had, and to enjoy making love to you and you to me. But... if it's still too soon for you, for us in your eyes, I understand. I just want you so much, to celebrate how much you understand me and I you."

As soon as she finished, Yuzu silenced her with a deep, lingering kiss.

"If you are ready, I am". Another kiss, and Yuzu backed onto the bed.

"However," her girlfriend added, eyes starting as soft and gentle as the spring, deepening with desire as her pupils dilated to a rich forest hue promising life and mystery and sex, "if we do this now, I want one thing, little Elphaba"

So she had noticed the parallels in the show.

"What, Yuzu?"

" I need you to take control. Properly, I want to submit to you and do whatever you want and let you do whatever you want to me, if you think I'd like it, though I don't think I'd like anything rough."

Her face was scarlet now, and Mei's was frozen in astonishment. 

"I've never done this before, so I would feel more comfortable with you in the lead, but it's more than just that. I trust you utterly with my heart and body, trust you not to hurt me or use me. When you stole that kiss from me, and have pinned me down before, it made me so excited, and, and, wet down below. When you did it the first time and I slapped you, I still masturbated thinking about it that night, it makes me feel so sexy and wanted to think of you having control and me pleasing you. But most importantly, I know you haven't been in control in your past encounters. People have used you either with emotional coercion or physical, and I never want that to be a risk with me. I need you to know that when we do it, you are in complete control of your body, as long as you want it, whenever we do it, and I give mine freely to you. Please, Mei, make me yours. But be gentle. If it gets too intense for me, I'll let you know by saying 'Azalea'"

Her words left Mei brimming with love and lust and at the precipice of losing control, Yuzu proving once more than whilst sometimes thoughtless she was the most generous and caring person Mei had ever met. Slowly taking off her shirt, and drinking in the reverence in Yuzu's gaze as she stared, starving, at her body, no effort to hide or diminish her desire, she slipped off her bra, knowing Yuzu couldn't keep her eyes off her breasts, but that she wouldn't touch her without permission, and traced kisses down her big sister's neck, peeling off the other girl's jumper as she did so and unbuttoning her shirt.

"Onesan, you are the most precious possession, if you have given yourself to me for safekeeping, I have ever held, your love, heart and body. I will be as gentle with you as the most delicate flower, I will melt you with gentleness, my love".

And she stroked the hair of the trembling, elfin beauty before her, before stroking her collar and licking it suggestively. She then undressed herself down to her panties, which were black ones with a cute teddy bear and love heart pattern, given to her by Yuzu a week ago, to her embarrassment at the time.

"Take off your top and bra"

Obediently, eagerly, Yuzu complied, almost throwing it off, and letting Mei sink her eyes over the firm curves of her breasts, similar in size to her own, with nipples already spiked with lust, the satin soft skin of her stomach, all heaving with desire .

Mei caressed her breasts, teasing her nipples and feeling her strong back, before giving one areola a light kiss and nip to a loud sigh from her lover. Gently painting circles with one finger on the other breast, she took one nipple in the mouth and tenderly sucked, feeling its ready heat as she savoured the gasps and moans she elicited.

"Strip down to your pants, my flower". 

Jeans on the floor in almost a frenzy. Yuzu, stereotyping herself, wore light pink underwear.

"Show me how wet you are for me"

Shyly, Yuzu rolled her legs up and spread them slightly, revealing a growing, dark patch that proved her desire, and the intoxicating scent of her ready sex, desperate for Mei to claim her. 

"This bit of you is mine. Say it"

"My pussy is yours, Mei. Forever, to do whatever you want with"

"I am going to show it all of my love. Close your eyes, my dear, I know you have wanted me to do these things to you for a long time".


	8. Chapter 8

Yuzu bit her top lip, pleading with her verdant eyes for Mei to complete her claim on her, but was left whining softly as the younger girl, rolled off the bed, and moving slowly to focus Yuzu's attention on every shift of her half naked body, walked to the chair where they had left their fine wool scarfs, worn in the mild British "summer" day. Sauntering back, heart pounding in entire new ground, physically but also in so blatantly embracing her attraction for Yuzu and in front of Yuzu, she used a scarf on each wrist to gently, carefully but effectively tie them to the corner posts of their bed. 

"This is to make sure you aren't naughty and touch me or yourself before I say you can. It's time for me to touch you."

Yuzu moaned in anticipation, and as Mei watched the effect she was having on her sister, rich fragrance and frank wetness from between her legs as obvious as the desperation on her face and in her whines, she became aware of her own dampness and the blood thumping through her arteries, heat everywhere. She knelt over her sister, her pelvis over Yuzu's tight tummy, her breasts now dangling in front of her spellbound face, Yuzu's eyes fixed to them with their dark areolas and erect, confessing nipples.

"You've been staring at these for the best part of a year, Yuzu blossom, practically drooling over them when I change. Show my breasts how much you want them. Be my good girl".

Hungrily, Yuzu latched onto a nipple and sucked and licked as Mei stroked her hair and her cheek and earlobe, pausing to gasp as Mei fondled her own swollen tests, then shuddering into groans as Mei slowly inched one hand down to the elastic of her panties. 

"Do you want me to go further, big sister?"

"Yeeeess..."

"Tell me how much, tell me why I should"

"Oh, please, Mei, I want it more than anything, I'll do anything if you touch me down there, please make me yours completely!"

"Your wish is my heart's desire, my love"

Kissing Yuzu's mouth, breasts and neck, stroking her hair again and nibbling her ear, Mei slid her hand beneath the cusp of the now soaked cotton panties, past the well groomed little triangle of fine hair cultivated there, finding to her delight that Yuzu's sopping vulva had started opening right up like a flower bursting into bloom, the strong perfume adding to the imagery, all her "petals" coated with their own wonderful sticky dew, the process drawing a long sigh from Yuzu. Using her fingers to make a cursory exploration of the landscape of her sex, she dipping into her lower lips to make them slick and then brought one digit, stationary and gentle, onto her obvious, engorged nub of her clitoris, knowing she had hit the perfect spot by the glorious widening of those big green eyes. 

"Now, before I do anything further, you need to be a good girl for me and answer some questions. We will never lie to each other again, and if you are good, I'll make you come. How many times have you touched yourself thinking of me?"

Minuscule vibrations of her fingertip on Yuzu's little bud. The elder girl's legs started to become taut.

"Oh, ah, Mei! Every single time, every time in my whole life! I first played with myself down there, curious, after you kissed me for the first time, and every time since  I have orgasmed dreaming of you! Pleeeeeaaaaasse..."

At this, Mei started to move her finger in a tiny circle, slowly at first but building up pace, feeling the area get even wetter if possible, and taking in the faster and shallower breaths of her needy lover. There was now so much tension in Yuzu's thighs and abdomen, begging to be broken.

"And what do you dream of me doing to you?"

"Kissing me, making me taste you, touching me like this, doing whatever you want! I don't know what else girls do!"

"Good girl. Now you get your reward". Mei kept her touch delicate but now rubbed quickly, grazing the skin. She didn't have to do any more, within less than a minute Yuzu shattered into loud, spasming orgasm, crying out Mei's name like a fervent prayer. Now feverish with shared desire, Mei frantically slid off her girlfriend's sodden underwear and still carefully pushed apart Yuzu's legs, now leaning over her to kiss her face ardently, their sweaty breasts pressing together for a moment. She kissed all over Yuzu's porcelain neck, careful not to leave any marks yet, and ever so slowly returned her hand to the now fully open flower below and slid a finger inside her vagina inch by inch, letting her fill up slowly. Her own passionate self-love had left Yuzu apparently without a hymen, which made things easier, and with her lover groaning with the new sensation of fullness, Mei added a second finger, and started to move animatedly, mixing between firm but careful thrusts and tender caressing of the second sensitive spot within her walls. Very quickly, Yuzu was on the brink of another climax, and pleaded Mei to give it to her, which she keenly did. Then she took her dew-coated fingers, and licked one clean, enjoying the sweet sour taste, before putting the other to Yuzu's breathless lips.

"Open up like a good girl". Wordlessly, Yuzu did, sucking her own juices off Mei's finger with enthusiasm. "You taste good, right?"

"I guess, yeah".

"Well, I'm going to get a proper helping now, and then if you ask very nicely I'll untie your poor hands and you'll find out how great the person you love tastes. Would you like that?"

Taking Yuzu's pining whimper as a yes, Mei slithered down her body, kissing in her belly button and licking up stray drops of sweat, enjoying the salt before the delicate meaty flavour waiting for her below. Now a bit more forceful, she spread Yuzu's legs wide, and the other girl took the hint and held them apart as firmly as she could still bound. Mei held her breath at the jaw-dropping site of Yuzu's beautiful pink sex, glistening as if in moonlight, with her full clitoris and open lips showing her need, and the swell of her inviting Mei in, noting how well trimmed that little thatch of hair was. The scent was now overpowering, describable only as Yuzu, her love, at her most vulnerable. Then with long licks like a cat, Mei used her tongue to make love to Yuzu's tangy labia, lapping away at the flow of nectar there, invading her tunnel again with her tongue as firm as she could make it, whilst Yuzu moaned again and again, each worshipping the other in a different way. Mei replaced her tongue with a finger, this time focussing on the g-spot, and suckled on the kernel of Yuzu's clitoris, swirling the little button in her mouth, now working on it with teeth, tongue and lips, and torturing it with hot tantalising breaths. She was certain Yuzu had come at least once more, but was building up to yet another orgasm, waves of pleasure crescendoing visibly through her body, face on the borderline of ecstatic tears. Sensing that adventure might make things even better for Yuzu, Mei used her free hand to massage Yuzu's beautiful, athletic buttocks, and then gently touched the area around her anus, pushing the cheeks apart with most of her hand and using one digit to discover that area, now flirting with the hole itself. 

"Yes, do it if you want to, Mei, I'm your dirty good girl!" Mei used the wetness of Yuzu's whole area to lubricate her finger and slip inside that hole too, and as she did so Yuzu had another enormous climax, viscerally groaning, pussy and back-passage both clamping down on the fingers inside them. Yuzu went limp, and Mei returned to look at her angelic face, with some concern until her sister opened her eyes and gave a weak smile.

"Oh, I liked that, I didn't know I would but the, um, bit at the back felt so naughty and so amazing". Sweaty all over, and now aware that her own panties were as wet as Yuzu's had been, Mei was filled past the brim with love for her giving sister and her own itch that needed scratching. She untied Yuzu's wrists, then lay back on the bed. 

"Now, pretty one, are you going to taste me? Make me climax feeling your love? My first pure sex?"

"Yes, please!"

"If you want my body, you will have to beg better than that, beg me Yuzu"

Yuzu crawled up to her, face inches from Mei's, body close and hovering over her, every bit of her radiating needy lust.

"Please little sister, love of my life, please let me eat you and drink you and make you come. Let me worship your body with mine. Tell me what to do, how to please you!"

Mei smiled, more aroused than she had ever been, kissing her deeply.

"First, take off my underwear, and breath in all my smell, then kiss up my thighs until you reach my crux and kiss me as if it were my mouth. You'll know what to do my love. Enjoy me."


	9. Chapter 9

Obediently, Yuzu clambered on her knees between Mei's legs, and started to pepper her thighs with tiny kisses, each one sending sparks across Mei's skin.

"Feel how wet you've made me, loving you has made me. Touch me."

Mei gasped as her big sister tentatively put her fingers at her crux, delicately feathering her sensitive folds. Mei had never felt like this, so turned on, but also this heavy fire in her chest. Being touched by Yuzu was different, cleaner, the older girl's pure love and gentleness shining through in her actions.

"Put a finger in". Yuzu did, both girls sighing, Mei at the wonderful invasion and Yuzu at the wet, hot embrace around her digit. Investigatively, Yuzu started to wiggle her finger, which to Mei's surprise already had that slow preclimactic tension building up in her core.

"Now taste me. Make love to me with your mouth."

The raw, exquisite flame of Yuzu's wet tongue on her lady parts felt incredible, every avid lick a bolt of hot lightning through her. Inexperienced as she was, Yuzu's eagerness and open pleasure in orally pleasing her was adorable and highly arousing. Finding her rhythm with Mei's coaching and some natural instinct, Yuzu settled into licking her beloved's crotch, spreading her focus as instructed on Mei's lips and clitoris before sucking on the latter, cat's eyes locked with Mei's own, the question clear in them: was Mei happy? Was Yuzu good.

Knowing this was where her beautiful lover would need encouragement for her self-esteem, that caring for others was the essence of her spirit, Mei cried out.

"That's amazing Yuzu, I love you and you are amazing, I'm about to orgasm!"

Spurred by these words, Yuzu moved her fingers and tongue faster and faster until, deliberately louder than her usual near silent climax, Mei exploded over her face, flooding below with honey and fire. That was the fastest and best orgasm of her life, and was left, unlike before, with no empty feeling of regret or returning numbed pain but only fondness for the girl between her thighs and a deep sense of happiness.

"Oh, Yuzu, that was incredible!" The praise gave Yuzu a smile that lit up her already lovely face, made even more gorgeous coated in Mei's glistening honey. "Come up here so I can kiss you."

Now lying flush on her, Yuzu opened her mouth expectantly for Mei's hungry tongue.

_I will never tire of kissing her._

Carefully, Mei danced her hands over Yuzu's curves again, inviting her lover to reciprocate and explore the rest of her body. Yuzu took the hint, and started to stroke and fondle her backside, breasts and back, obsessing over Mei's bosum and pert, dark nipples as Mei squeezed her tight arse. Mei then kissed her hard on the neck, leaving her a signature to mark her territory. The help of others, fate and Yuzu's own persistence had led her to Mei when the latter had struggled to understand and express her own feelings, and then again when Mei had pushed her away, putting what she thought was best for her family including Yuzu over herself, Yuzu had shown her the depth of her love and blessedly changed Mei's perspective. She would never lose or reject her again. They lay there holding each other's sated bodies for what seemed like an hour, comforted by each other's touch and aura of love.

"Come on. We have a long flight tomorrow, we should wash before bed."

Yuzu, still adorably prone to piques of immaturity, pouted. "But you only finished once, you made me orgasm countless times, that's not fair on either of us!"

Mei's had felt so intense for her that she wasn't sure she could repeat it as many times as Yuzu had. 

"Sure, but as you said, in this department I'm the boss. Plus, we'll shower together and before we finish up, you'll make love to me once more. I don't think I can take more than that, it's too intense. I'll be the one to say Azalea."

Naked and sheened in sweat, Mei stepped into the large en suite, and still obediant, like her own little puppy, Yuzu followed.

 


	10. Chapter 10

The two of them spent some time in the shower, as first Mei had taken Yuzu from behind, slipping her fingers underneath her and inside her with rapid thrusts as she kissed where her neck met her shoulder and tweaked her nipples, and then, hungry for more and loving both the flavour and the response it produced from Mei, Yuzu got to her knees on the floor just as the water started to heat up and feasted again on the rich stew within Mei's sex, this time reverently and slowly lapping away, savouring her until she pulled her hair firmly and her face into her thighs and had a second orgasm, wonderful to watch. They then carefully and lovingly washed each other with lathered soap and occasional teasing fingers. 

Then, after towelling off and exchanging sweet kisses, they went to bed, still nude, Mei behind Yuzu, arms wrapped around her, one across her breasts unconsciously cupping one and the other palm laying where her abdomen started to meet her pelvis. Yuzu pushed her behind back slightly to press into Mei's crotch, adoring the feeling of her satin soft skin and comforting warmth.

"This is heaven. I love you so much, my Azalea flower, my Mei. That was the most beautiful thing I've ever done in my life, way better than the Yuri I'd read implied."

"Shhh, Yuzu. Sleep time now, or do I have to shut you up with another kiss?" Mei's voice was drifting, revealing her exhausted state.

Yuzu was pretty tired now too, and they had a long flight tomorrow (though still a few days off school in a house all alone with Mei, the thought of which left her tingly downstairs!), so she let herself float away in sleep, blessed with dreams of Mei. Some sweet, of times past and future spent together, even married, some sad, reliving her fears of losing Mei once more, and some very sexual...

Several hours before their alarm went off, Yuzu had one of the last dreams violently. She had dreamt that she and Mei had just moved in to an apartment together for university, and wanting to "break in" their bed, Mei had ordered her to strip for her, which she had done, melting in her loins, before Mei put on a strap on (which Yuzu had heard of but never really thought of before -her manga hadn't looked a lot at that!) and fucked her first gently from the front, faces close and kissing, then firmly with Yuzu on top, being conducted by her younger sister, then fast and hard from behind, Yuzu's dream self climaxing time after time.

The intensity of it, even more than the dreams she had had of Mei before, when she couldn't stop thinking about her when they first tried a relationship, woke her up, and the submissiveness and naughtiness of it shocked the innocent part of her but left her frustrated and aroused. Her thighs were soaking, and she knew her vulva was wetter even than it had been earlier, full of liquid fire.

Briefly she considered whether she could relieve herself without waking Mei, and whether Mei would be happy finding out about that, but she needn't have worried. Evidently this dream had resulted in some sounds or words coming from her as well as restlessness, and Mei, it seemed, was already awake and very aware of what Yuzu had been imagining. 

_I probably even moaned her name, the way the dream was going..._

Mei gave another "sssh", and moved her hand slightly down from her white belly to tease her little strip of hair (it had taken ages for Yuzu to decide how to prepare down there for Mei, just in case something happened in London, and she had been very shy about Mei seeing it, though pleased with the results). Then it travelled further to rest on her ready clitoris and with subtle, considerate movements, Mei toyed and tweaked there until Yuzu fell into another orgasm and back to sleep.

In the morning, both of them spent half an hour in the comfort of each other's arms, Yuzu soaking in the quiet wisdom and infinite compassion of her lover's now indigo, now purple eyes, the rich dark colours of mysterious night that Yuzu was still understanding, loved to continue to get to know. They dressed, each sneaking looks at the other, Yuzu finding it hard to avert her gaze from Mei's long legs, perfect swelling of her buttocks and her firm, entrancing tear drop breasts. Yuzu picked out a cute t-shirt with shirt combo, with an open jacket and jeans, whilst her sister opted for a more refined blouse and skirt. They packed, breakfasted and set out for their flight, hand in hand the whole journey. 

Not wanting to be overly open in public, they didn't delve into many details on the flights, Mei reading and writing most of the time whilst Yuzu watched a film and then started to emulate Mei by starting a book. Murukami. Norwegian Wood. It was pretty deep but pretty good, at least the few chapters she had reached. In between, she mused on a million questions- what did they to sort for their wedding? What things (she blushed) would Mei do to her alone in mama's house together? How should they go about preparing for university next year, and what did she need to do to get good enough grades to go to the same college as Mei?

With this much on her mind, the long journey passed all too quickly. But Yuzu knew whatever the answers were, together they would find them, and she would never ever let herself be the reason she and Mei couldn't be together or were held back.


	11. Chapter 11

When they arrived back home, exhausted they both washed, kissed and went to bed, not even pausing to eat. Yuzu floated off to the the warm blanket that was Mei's loving arms beneath her breasts, the solace of her sweet breath on her nape, a sensation that was becoming more delightfully familiar by the day. No energy for wet dreams tonight, after their long haul flight, and even Mei slept in once morning came.

In fact, Yuzu woke first, heart singing once again at the feeling of naked Mei wrapped around her, both bodies now hot with the summer night air and the mingling swelter of their bodies, now promised to each other for eternity. Wanting to treat her beloved, Yuzu slipped out from her slumbering, gorgeous body, sneaking an admiring glance at her perfect, ripe breasts, her succulent curves and the beatific peace on her beautiful face, so rare except when she slept free from her usual stresses and burdens. Yuzu started to cook a special breakfast, Mei's favourite, blending Western and traditional cultures with miso soup, natto and some fish but also American waffles and eggs. 

The wafting delectable aroma obvious called Mei from her rest, and she came to watch Yuzu finish from the kitchen table, now giving the compliments for how good it looked that had become less and less uncommon from her - she had learnt that Yuzu, for all her vigour and bravado, thrived on encouragement, and she genuinely loved Yuzu's cooking. After a fulfilling meal, they shopped to restock the house supplies, and then as soon as they were home again Mei sprang a question that mortified Yuzu.

"So, in the hotel when you woke up all frustrated and... smouldering down there, what did you dream of?"

Face hot as a volcano, and not dissimilar in shade, Yuzu answered "Hey, ah, Mei that's not fair to ask me that!" Her lover just looked at her in silence, drawing a response out of her. They had promised not to lie to each other. Feeling like an utter pervert, Yuzu recounted, in some detail as Mei pressed her, exactly what she had imagined in her sleep, from the submission (again) and the use of the sex-toy and the way Mei had tilled her mound until she had woken on the cusp of coming. Non-judgemental, Mei had simply nodded, then went on as if she had said nothing, Yuzu red-faced with shame. 

Mei's muted response had left her upset, and a bit withdrawn as she did some homework in preparation for the renewal of school in a few days, and she felt even worse when she heard the door shut as Mei obviously left the house again.

_I've scared her away with my deviant wishes..._

She knew that probably wasn't true, but deliberately lost herself in her work nonetheless, missing the quieter sound of Mei returning a while later, until she suddenly found her fiancee by her shoulder, touching her cheek lightly.

"I'm sorry, that probably wasn't a very tactful way to ask you, and I probably scared you when I disappeared afterward. I just realised something we never bought from the shops earlier. I love you and want to make you happy, but talking is still not a strength for me"

"I know, my flower, I just still feel a bit insecure when I talk about how attracted I am to you, and I still feel so inexperienced with all this!"

Yuzu felt her frustrations rising again, and Mei must have recognised something of that in her face or tone, as she cut them off with a tender kiss. 

"Now. We have lots to plan." Yuzu was stunned by the change of pace. "I know any wedding still has to wait till the end of the school year at least, but we should begin preparing for it. You have the enthusiasm, I have the organisation. I thought a list of what needs arranging would be a start".

Naturally Yuzu was delighted to focus on such an event, she had been fantasising over her perfect wedding since before even her first "manga kiss" aspirations, and had a myriad, and a several folders full on paper, of ideas, but knew Mei's logical and organisational approach would be perfect to ensure they didn't miss anything.

"Also we have to make sure we do well in the final year of school: we will also need to talk to Miss Nakamura, the careers advisor, about what to do after school." Huh? "I am happy I chose you over any arranged marriage, but it means I will be the one, supported by you, to run the family business and school, and will need to pick university courses accordingly, and to pick somewhere where you can study what you want as well. Miss Nakamura can help us find a suitable place where we can study close to each other and live together, and tell us what we need to achieve to do that, though I'm not sure how to tell her why we need to stay together..."

Yuzu was a bit anxious about that too - she could lie and say she wanted the support of her sister (well, not lie, but omit a greater truth) but she was tired of living a lie. But coming out, and with her step-sister too, was very daunting indeed. However, she took solace from the opportunity to think about a wonderful future together. She would happily be the house wife to support Mei's ambitions if she needed, a weird reversal of what Mei would have been expecting from life, and before that or along with it would love to study art and design, her favourite subjects now, at University. If she got a career in that area, it would be good too but that wasn't her main priority right now. She expressed this to her lover, who smiled at the sweet dedication in her words but reiterated that whilst Mei would be responsible for the school, she wanted Yuzu to be fulfilled in her career as well, and they were both responsible for the family name, more so if they embarked on such a scandalous relationship for life.

Anyway. It was time for lunch soon, and Yuzu had a special meal planned for her sweet Azalea, again relishing the compliments she got for the cooking. They got on with the rest of their day, making the beginnings of plans in a folder Mei had started, cutely decorated with 2 bear stickers and labelled "Mei and Yuzu's life plan book". They'd need Mama to be back to really sort out a lot of this, but it was fun just to get things rolling. Once they had written out the headings, lying together on the living room floor, Yuzu found herself blushing at the thought of the last one in the wedding section: titled "Honeymoon". 

_I need to stop blushing so easily, it'll get embarrassing if I do that every time sex comes up even tangentially!_

Reminded by this, and the decision she had made to let Mei take control in that area, she suggested out loud that they put her (Yuzu) in charge of the less physical aspects of dating, and set aside a weekly date night for romantic experiences together. This actually drew a blush from Mei, who was happy to agree and defer to her creative partner there, before saying she had to go upstairs for a nap.

_That sounds nice._

After a few minutes, Yuzu headed up to their room to join her, only to find no Mei to be seen. Just a pretty plain lilac canvas bag on the bed. Intrigued, Yuzu stepped forward to investigate 

She stopped, heart frozen then immediately hammering, heat rushing downwards from it to... Well, she didn't need to say where. 

The bag was full of some very... naughty toys, that Mei had evidently bought when she left the house earlier as a present of sorts. All were cute, lots were pink, and though Yuzu didn't recognise all of them, she was pretty sure one was a bunny rabbit tail plug that looked like it went... a second private place... and another was, from the descriptions she had read (nervously) online, almost certainly what they called a dildo, but with a fabric harness attached. The whole bag smelled of lemon and lavender, soaps and fragrance clearly added afterward by Mei.

Gods. She was wet now.

Then the sultry, commanding voice from behind her sent her neck hairs rising up with glorious anticipation.

"Yuzu, my good little girl, clothes off. All of them. Now."

She turned to see, in new, lacy red lingerie, breasts emphasised by the uplifting bra and promise of fulfilled fantasy in her fathomless, indigo blue eyes, her love. Mei.

She swallowed, hands already obeying, blood boiling hot, inner thighs slick with desire, as Mei firmly but caringly pushed her over onto the bed.

"What do you want, Yuzu blossom? Tell me exactly like earlier..."

"I want you to fuck me, Mei. Make this bed our home."


	12. Chapter 12

Yuzu howled as Mei bucked with her toy inside her. Mei had listened to every second of her embarrassing fantasy, and in typical fashion seen it as an exact manual on what to do.

She had loved the gentle, tender way Mei had taken her virginity but equally the intensity and physicality of this more aggressive treatment was doing a lot for her. Making her scream in pleasure as it happened, and Mei touched her there and there and there, then thrusting her augmented pelvis in and out as she pinned her hands down at the wrists, telling Yuzu to cry out her name, instructions Yuzu couldn't physically fail to follow even if she had wanted to. The toy inside her filled her up completely, and the vigour of the fucking brought her to climax in what felt like no time.

Mei then, almost scary focus on her face, took a little bottle of vanilla scented lubricant out of the bag of gifts and told Yuzu, words insistent but warm, to roll over. Slightly apprehensive despite this being her fantasy, she obeyed. 

_I wonder what is going to happen now? I'm excited but I don't really want to have anal sex, that's not what appeals to me._

But Mei just used her now coated finger to tease her little rosebud, recreating the taboo intimacy she had felt with Mei touching her there the other night. Using one digit and then liberally squirted lube she eeked in and out carefully, letting Yuzu get used to the pressure there.

"Um, Mei, that feels great, but I want you do know I really don't want the, um, dildo, in there. That's too much"

"Don't worry, Yuzu, trust me. That's not what's going there, never unless you want it. But this is the one thing in my own fantasy, aside from making you happy. Making you look even more cute, with your own sensitive little tail."

 Turned on at the thought of fulfilling one of Mei's desires, Yuzu got into it and enjoyed the steady stretching of her little ring, Mei never pushing too hard, gentling acclimatising her to one and then two fingers before using copious amounts of unguent liquid to grease her now comfortable back passage and then, talking Yuzu through it all with deep breaths and relaxing strokes, eased the relatively narrow plug in, taking utmost care as Yuzu lay there languorously.

It took Yuzu a few minutes to get used to the pleasurably invasive fullness, a stretch that didn't hurt but demanded her attention. Mei then started to tease her by tweaking her new little bunny rabbit tail, the minute movements within her bottom sending intense waves of sensation deep into her.

"What other fantasies do you have, my love? Aside from this one."

"Honestly, just to hold you whilst you sleep happy in my arms, and know that you are happy with me. But I'm glad to indulge any of yours."

Yuzu was curious at how naturally Mei had inserted the implement and used the strap on and asked if she'd done this before.

The younger girl shook her head.

"I just like to do my research properly. The lady at the shop was very happy to give some advice when I asked. Now, your fantasy isn't over..."

With that, she used her fingers and a new vibrator from the little bag to drive Yuzu to the precipice and then pulled her ontop of her, strap on deep within her, and bounced her up and down whilst Yuzu screamed out, unable to distinguish one orgasm from another from the whole unreal vehement experience. She finished off driving into her from behind, Mei arse in the air until the elder girl nearly passed out. 

Once she had recovered, Yuzu begged to eat Mei out and, excited by the way she had treated Yuzu and the experience of making the girl she loved come, Mei quickly erupted into orgasm over her sister's face.

"Which did you prefer, the slow time in England, or this one, Yuzu blossom?" She shrugged. "I think the first time as a general thing, but my body was pretty desperate for you to ravish me like this right now. I will always tell you all my dreams, Mei, I think it's my heart and body saying what they need. Which did you prefer?"

"Anything that makes your sweet little face slacken in pleasure, Yuzu. If you climax, then I always will after. That's what makes me happy."

They lay together for a while, before heading off for a walk later that evening, Yuzu feeling very daring and naughty in wearing her tail beneath her jeans. They walked hand in hand until tiring they sat on a bench, Yuzu feeling contemplative at how much her life had changed in a year and even in the last few weeks.

"Mei-chan, now that we are being completely honest, can you tell me when you first realised you really liked me, and why? I'll tell you the things I love most about you too"

"That's... Hard for me to do, Yuzu. I'll struggle to hold onto my emotions talking about something so exciting to me."

" Oh, ok, sorry"

"No, don't be for my sake. But can it wait until we get home? I'll tell you all alone."

They sat in satisfied silence until the sun set, just like a date several months ago when they had been literally and figuratively following a rule book neither understood. And squeezed each other's hand when the light turned to twilight, absorbing this quiet moment, before heading home to reopen up their hearts.


	13. Chapter 13

Back at home, the two ate a quick but tasty sushi meal prepared by Yuzu before retiring to the living room. They read a little then started to watch a nature documentary called Planet Earth, translated from English, Yuzu lying on Mei's lap before Yuzu couldn't take any more.

"So about what I asked before... can you tell me now?"

 

At first Yuzu thought she had pushed her too far, that no answer would be coming. Mei found feelings... complicated to express and discussing them particularly draining and even distressing. But after a few endless seconds of silence, she spoke up.

"From the first moment I saw you, in a disengaged way I thought you were very pretty. Like a flower, or a painting, though unsubtle and inappropriate for the setting. And once I realised how hard you were trying to support me as a sister, despite the tricky situation and your obvious feelings, to put what you saw I needed ahead of what you wanted, I started to feel... new things, that now I would say a thing that felt like love, but new to me, more confused than love for a sister or a friend like Himeko. Then when you helped me talk to Papa, I understood that I cared for you very much, that you were unique in my life and that evolved over weeks to a knowledge that I needed you and wanted you, physically and emotionally."

Yuzu had never heard her lover speak so frankly, still staring at the ground but voice wavering with emotion that made a well of sadness and gladness swell in Yuzu's middle. Then Mei looked up and met her eyes and that feeling flared, love coursing through her veins in hearing the validation once more that this wonderful being felt the same way she did, even if she found it hard to share.

"As for why... You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, your individuality shining through in everything you wear and do as well as your natural beauty, but you also have a beautiful soul. You can give yourself entirely to a thing, you care about so much about so many things, about me. I first thought you shallow and silly, but your love of life and openness just formed a gloss over a wise heart willing to learn and listen, and to selflessly give. You are thoughtless and rash, but generous and spontaneous. Honest with yoursekf. Brave. Determined. Kind, even when others have hurt you. And you share that willingness to live life to its fullest with me."

By this point, Mei's voice was raw with emotion, and Yuzu could resist her no longer.

"Oh, Mei..." She pressed her lips to Mei's, no hungry to show Mei how requited her love was.

"Mei, I love you because you always think of others over yourself, you'd sacrifice every bit of you if you thought it were the right thing. You are serene, intelligent, so full of feeling and a wish to love that you hide to protect others. Hard-working. Willing to listen to what I need. So out of your depth romantically but trying so hard to fix that. The world has hurt you so much because of how much you care and how much you give, and all I ever want to do is to give back to you and make you feel happy and whole. I love you. And it doesn't hurt things that you look like a perfect goddess, flawless beautiful face and perfect, tempting body..." By now she was stroking Mei's arm, eyes locked with hers.

"Tell me what you want, Mei. How can I show you how much I want you and want you to be happy? Let me make you happy..."

"Oh... kiss my breasts, Yuzu." Still resolved to obey her every whim, she unbuttoned Mei's blouse and unfastened her bra, slowly releasing her bosum and nibbling and worshipping her orbs as if she were truly a goddess and her body were the altar. Joining in, Mei wriggled out of her jeans and her loosened upper clothing, moon pale skin almost radiant, warm flesh turning Yuzu on.  
"I want to see you, Yuzu blossom, please, show me your beauty in full."

Grinning, obediant but empowered, Yuzu teasingly stripped, still blushing when her most private bits were fully revealed, aware that her own arousal was entirely obvious through the smell of her wet mound and the points of her nipples. Turning around as she threw her damp panties away, giving Mei the full show she had requested including the bunny tail still protruding from her rear, she then dropped between Mei's thighs, only fragrant, wet patched underwear between her ultimate prize and her hungry, eager tongue.

"Please Mei. Let me taste you, let me give you bliss and take the tang of your delicious body."

"Yes... eat me, Yuzu. Slowly. This is your dessert whenever you want it."

She eased the panties off, parted her thighs and started delicately kissing away, thighs first but hitting close to every sensitive spot, inhaling the addictive, animal scent of Mei's desire like fine wine before taking a tiny lick right from the source, like the sip of such a vintage, savouring it in her mouth, and savouring the gasp from Mei, whose emotional outpouring it seemed had left her near her precipice anyway. Yuzu was amazed that the outwardly stoic Mei could even be so horny, so aroused to get as wet as she now was, but obviously she could. The knowledge that Mei's strength of feeling and sight of Yuzu's body had led to it thrilled Yuzu completely.

 _I did this. She wants me so badly, it's not just me_.

Now was time to drink in earnest. She stuck her tongue inside Mei and drove it as far as it would go, wiggling and licking, then sucked on the grape of her clitoris, gently but insistently, building a rhythm, and Mei came faster than she ever had before. She cried out again and again, but gave no indication for her fiancé to stop, so Yuzu kept worshipping and swirling her nub around with her tongue, adding fingers to the process, until finally Mei formed coherent words.

"Yuuzuu... flip around. Give... give me your pussy, here, by my face."

_Ah. This would be a '69' then._

Excited for another first, Yuzu disengaged for a moment to crouch with her crotch at Mei's head before burying her face in Mei again. Immediately the other girl started licking at her with increasing pace and aggression, and with the pleasure of having pleased Mei, Yuzu knew she was already close. Mei had a finger inside her too, and was playing with the tail attached to her plug and the sensations across so many erogenous area with the vibrations of Mei's moans made her orgasm embarrassingly quickly. Mei then spanked her lightly, causing her to moan out, then commanded her to lick her arse. Caught in the moment, she obeyed without thought, and found another Mei orgasm alongside the strange but not unpleasant musky taste. Thankfully she was clean there, and Yuzu found she really didn't mind it at all. Obviously Mei had enjoyed it, and after that climax seemed wiped out. Yuzu rolled off and then clambered back into Mei's arms, holding her tight as she went limp. After recuperating, they kissed, tasting themselves on the other's lips, then cleaned (tail now removed and washed, back in the 'gift bag') and went to bed together, sharing warmth and talking about their budding wedding plans until Mei fell asleep.

Yuzu held Mei until sleep claimed her too. Mama was coming home tomorrow, which was fantastic and would help them plan for the wedding and other life things more easily, but Yuzu wasn't sure how much of this sort of thing they would still be able to do. She knew her mother must suspect that they would have fooled around alone in London at least, and she knew she supported their relationship utterly, but they would need to talk about what was accepted in Mama's house at this point and when, and either way the toys might have to be hidden for a while. She could wait again for sex with Mei, if need be, she had waited that long before, but now that it had happened it was amazing, not only in terms of pleasure but in terms of intimate connection with her beloved and she didn't want to give it up for a while really. And then next week school restarted and they'd have to work out how obvious was appropriate, probably deal with disapproval and then plan for her academic future...

It was with this worry that Yuzu eventually drifted off, excited but frightened for a future that was sure to be as challenging as it was promising. But whatever happened, she had Mei now.


	14. Chapter 14

Finally Mama was coming back home. 

Mei still felt a little odd thinking of Yuzu's mum as "mother", but Mama came with enough nickname connotations to work for her. Regardless, she loved her for many reasons.

Mei couldn't remember much of her own mother, not clearly. They had never been close, she guessed a by-product of a loveless arranged marriage and a parental pairing that never really worked.

_Still... I wish she could have loved me._

She had only seen her mother once, aged 8, since the divorce a couple of years before that, and had little idea how she would find her now even if she wanted to. There had never, in so far as she could recall, been a warm relationship between them. Her and Papa had been very different people, Grandfather said on the rare occasion that he would talk about her. That begged the question as to why he had matched them together, but whatever reasoning there was behind it, the match had not worked and she obviously hadn't been enough to hold them together.

She had never been a normal child, communicating her feelings had been hard from a very early age and her mind, she knew, worked very differently to most other people. She could connect with them, but it was hard, and it was hard to put herself into someone else's mind, to understand how they would respond and think differently to her. Putting herself into someone else's feelings was much easier for her, technically, but so painful that she sometimes intentionally and often subconsciously wouldn't let herself do it. Feeling what someone else was feeling wasn't something she could do with a filter - it was all or nothing, with the superimposition of how she would feel about the thing, and her own feelings were a thing she can either fully embrace or compartmentalise away - there was no middle ground there either. So she came across as emotionless and unempathetic, because the alternative was to feel everything and she wasn't strong enough to handle that. Even then sometimes things came through, and hurt- that was one reason why she had sometimes used sexual contact (though never with the intimacy that she found with Yuzu) when she became distressed or affected by the distress of others- it acted as a distraction, like the gateway theory of pain, another sensation to temporarily put in its place. Until it ended and she just felt empty. Better that than raw, she had thought, but that approach had left her open to abuse.

That had made her a difficult child to interact with, she knew. A difficult person even now (she could manage to win over adults with her carefully learnt manners and formality and her conscientious nature and work ethic, but she knew she had only one friend, truly, before Yuzu had come into and started to change her life), and maybe that was why mother didn't feel a motherly need to stay with her. Maybe her difficulty had been the tension to force her parents apart rather than bind them despite their differences. If she let herself think about it, she blamed herself until she cried inside, if she let those tears out of the tiny box inside her brain. She was sure her uniqueness hadn't helped Papa when he decided he couldn't stay at the school any more.

She kept driving everyone away, naturally. Maybe that was why she had tried so hard to drive Yuzu away - to save time and save her some tears. But Yuzu hadn't been driven away, the most persistent person she had ever met. She had let Mei feel the depth of her love, and for once opening herself to another person's full emotions, raw and replicated in herself, was, though still painful, ecstatically beautiful, a exquisite pain and pleasure and sense of completion. Pain like sex, tender and wonderful.

She loved her so much, she was so glad Yuzu hadn't given up on her happiness like she had herself.

Mama Ume, she loved her too. She had no connection to Mei other than falling in love, despite his constant absences, in her father, but she loved Mei and tried with her and supported her in a way her own parents, even her father who loved her, never really could. She was a wonderful woman.

_I don't deserve either mother or daughter._

Deserve her or not, she was back today, and spent a pleasant afternoon with both Mei and Yuzu before they would return to school next week. It was nice to feel like part of a family, albeit one with some complex interactions.

Ume had already known about their relationship, of course, was one of its most important supporters, and must have suspected that it might have taken a turn for the more physical since she had been away in London and here. But Mei was worried about what she would think about ongoing intimacy now they were in the house with her there, and neither her nor Yuzu had any idea of how to initiate that conversation.

They needn't have worried: Ume was clearly planning to go ahead for 'the talk'. It came after tea in the afternoon.

"Mei, Yuzu, I know you are both nearly adults in some ways now, and love each other very much. Now, I was planning to have this talk with you both a while ago, before I knew you were an item, and then again after I found out about that, but I didn't get a chance and I suspect I'm a bit late to the punch. I know there will be nothing you want to talk about with a parent than this, but hear me out".

True, this was awkward, but they had both known it was coming and necessary, and this was easier than them having to bring it up.

"As you are engaged, and have been alone for the last few days, am I right on guesses that your relationship has probably advanced in a sexual nature?" Blushing and downcast eyes, but nodding from Yuzu. Mei gripped her own hands and felt a sinking anxiety inside her but controlled her emotions and gave a blunt "Yes."

"I thought so, and that is natural and there's nothing wrong with it. At least I don't have to worry about warning you both about safe practice and pregnancy... But whilst you are under my roof, I want it to be really clear what is acceptable and what isn't. Being intimate together is fine, but just as I wouldn't want to know about it if you had brought a boy back, I don't want to see or hear my daughter or step-daughter in the act. So, try to do it when I'm out of the house, and definitely upstairs in your bedroom, door closed. You can share a bed but no loud noises late at night, and if I'm in the house I'd appreciate you keeping the noise down. No letting late nights affect your schoolwork. If you dirty the bedsheets, you clean them. Beyond that, whatever kind of intimacy you want, I am all for. I think it's silly to pretend you won't have sex, or that it's somehow bad for you to have sex as long as you are considerate of each other, but be sensible about it. Is that ok?"

Both assented. She kissed them both.

"I love you both very, very much, and I can't wait to help you get ready for your big day. But for now, school and life have to take priority - you have the rest of your lives together so don't rush everything."

Over the next few days before school started, they did have quiet sex a few times, relatively easy for Mei but for Yuzu it could be a challenge, needing Mei to kiss her mouth at just the right time to muffle any cries, and on one occasion, that made both of them more aroused than ever, using both of their used panties together as a gag for her. That time she had bucked and writhed, betraying the enormity of her orgasm, but her moans were silenced.

Just before the school term restarted, they spent a family day together first playing mini-golf (which Yuzu and Mei tied, 2 points ahead of Ume) and then a visit to the mall. This was more Yuzu's thing, generally, but Mei headed off to look at some new books at a bookshop, for herself but also for Yuzu. Her fiancee (that felt weird to say) had started trying to read more to have things to discuss with her, she was sure, and she didn't want Yuzu to stop being herself but it seemed that with encouragement and at a much lower pace than Mei, Yuzu had discovered she really enjoyed books and Mei wanted to reward her progress and introduce her to some of Mei's favourite books. She bought her a copy of two of her most cherished reads,  **The Waiting Years** by Enchi Fumiko and  **Death in Midsummer and Other Stories** by Mishima Yukio, but she had a backlog for her. She would add some Murakami to that as well but Yuzu was already reading and nearly through **Norwegian Wood**.

She came back from the store, books hidden away in her bag, to see Yuzu getting a lot of interest from a male admirer. It was obvious to Mei that the guy was trying to hit on her, but Yuzu could be quite oblivious to that kind of thing - she also didn't seem to realise how beautiful she really was. She decided to step back unless it looked like her girlfriend needed her, and got to hear their conversation.

"Hey, I've been trying to work up the courage to speak to a pretty girl like you, and I'm not sure what kind of thing will help make a cute girl like me. Would you mind helping me?"

"Oh! Well, thanks, but I'm not sure I can help you test out what types of line would work on winning over a girl to like you to be honest" (Ok, even Yuzu can see that this guy is hitting on her, then).

"Why not?! What does that mean?"

"Well, firstly, you really aren't my type - in fact I'd say it's almost impossible for me to be attracted to someone like you"

"What? I'm not cool enough, or muscular enough for you? You don't even know me, or want to listen to what I have to say, I think it's pretty cold to judge me like that, so shallow of you..."

Her wonderful partner raised a single eyebrow and gave a cool stare. She had seen Mei standing off to the side now, and flicked her eyes over to her. That was the signal, she guessed, so Mei started to walk across.

"I mean you are REALLY not my type, but in a moment I can help give you some hints to help you..."

She turned to hold Mei's hand as she arrived, surprising the young man who hadn't seen the second girl until that moment. Then she kissed Mei, just on the cheek but enough to make the situation very clear.

"Oh. OH..." "Yeah, the second reason is that I'm already taken. As you can see, unless you grow your hair longer and preferably some other extra bits, we aren't likely to click. But thirdly, nobody likes cheesy pick up lines, or people coming up to them unasked for in public. Not to say that being overly forward hasn't worked out for some people." (she gave Mei a meaningful look. _She's reminding me that my first kiss on her, even though it all worked out for the best, was very inappropriate and not OK..._ )" My advice is be yourself, listen to what they are saying and don't be a creep. There's a girl out there for you if you are friendly and do that, but it isn't me."

_My fiancee is incredible. She never would have had the guts to take that approach when we were dating the first time - she was so scared and hurt by how people reacted to seeing a lesbian couple in public._

_Easy enough to be open about this relationship in front of strangers though. I'm not sure how we are going to balance things at school all year, even if we do keep things reserved and professional._


	15. Chapter 15

At long last after the Summer break, they were headed back to school. The school that it looked increasingly certain that Mei would inherit responsibility of in her own right, after the board meeting a few weeks ago in which the board had agreed to open up the Chairman position in a non-inherited manner, allowing her father to abdicate the onus he didn't want to hold, and simultaneously agreeing in principle to her as a woman holding the role rather than any husband. The latter practically necessitated by the revelation (subtle from her - less so from Yuzu) that she didn't intend to marry any man.

This all meant Mei had to perfect her approach to the next step of her education more than ever - she would need good exam results but also a suitable degree with business prestige at least to be taken seriously as the school's first female Chairman, more so one with a wife and not a husband. A wife Mei knew would support her in many ways, but business itself would likely not be one of them.

Here, although most students would have heard at least rumours that they were a couple now, for propriety's sake they would have to avoid too much in the way of public displays of affection. Those had never made sense to Mei anyway, her love for Yuzu was as personal in her eyes as any of her other emotions and she felt uncomfortable and out of control expressing that (although being able to do so on her own terms had managed, alongside that anxiety, to feel a deep sense of achievement as well as the reflected pride and affection she felt from Yuzu). It might bother the more open and extrovert Yuzu though, as would the sense of disapproval for lesbian relationships that Mei was sure they would encounter. Yuzu knew what to expect though, and was sensible to the importance of keeping things appropriate. That was little to do with their unique relationship or its Sapphic nature but rather society and their school's attitude to the public embracing of romantic relationships in general.

Although it came with stress and responsibilities that she needed rather than enjoyed, school still seemed like a safe place of sorts to Mei. No outpouring of emotion was expected from her, no forced socialisation, not any more, just hard work and excellence and that she could manage.

She meticulously made her way through her classwork, and the student council duties waiting for her in her break. Now that she wasn't trying to distract and pull herself away from Yuzu, that she had embraced that part of herself, her workload wasn't artificially inflated and it was simply demanding rather than gruelling. She ate lunch with Himeko, exchanged a quiet smile with Yuzu and that was that for now. After the meal, she had an appointment in the lunch-break with Nakamura-San, the Careers Advisor, and also the Literature teacher for their class.

"So, Aihara Mei, how can I help you today?"

"Ah, Nakamura-San, sorry to bother you, but I want to talk about University."

"Ah yes. Well, your results are exceptional as you know and your portfolio in other areas excellently set up. Realistically you could apply to almost any course at the best Universities in the country, so what areas have you been thinking about? Or even abroad would be an option."

This was it. Putting some of herself, and her feelings, on the line.

"Well, as you may or may not have heard, there has been some talk about me applying to be the Chairman of this school after my grandfather retires. So from that aspect, a prestigious business degree is a must, and I would like some education experience to help me understand how to approach the school from a teacher's perspective..."

"Very sensible, and very doable, I can ring up a selection of courses, of course..."

"However," Mei felt a twinge of anxiety now, "There is another important thing to take into consideration. I would ideally like a University that is relatively local, but that isn't all." She took a deep breath. "It needs to be a University or near a University that Aihara Yuzu can attend too. That we can continue to live together and remain a family."

That got her a shrewd look. "And is this all due to sisterly love? No, don't answer that. I know what your relationship with Yuzu is. I'd be delighted to help you maintain it."

Shock. "Wait... you know? And you don't mind?"

"We aren't all so close-minded even in a conservative school like this. And I can tell when two of my favourite students make each other happy, and if they do truly do that, are truly in love, why would I discourage it? Love is such a pure and rare thing in this world these days, it must be nurtured. When you two were both obviously brokenhearted together, I had my suspicions, and I heard some rumours, but once you were both smiling at each other and happy at the same time, and no longer avoiding each other, it was obvious to me."

Mei still couldn't believe what she was hearing. "But... don't you care that we are related?" "Only by virtue of your parents finding each other attractive. You share no blood, and you met and had your first impression of each other at age 17 before you had any idea who the other was. What ever is wrong with that? Sisters in name only, there's nothing incestuous about it. As for an application that keeps you together... well that inherently makes things more complicated but it can be done. There are plenty of great Universities in Tokyo, and many do strong Arts and Humanities courses. I'm sure that's what Yuzu will want to do, her best subjects are Art and, dare I say, my own. She's flourished since being with you in that regard. I know she doesn't have the natural instinctive aptitude that you have for schooling, Mei, but that determined girl can achieve anything when she puts her full mind to it, and she has a bright mind behind that distractible party-girl exterior. If it means staying in a flat with you, she will put her full mind to it, too."

The teacher pulled her glasses to the edge of her nose now. "You are both wonderful, selfless, hardworking, intelligent girls, and I meant it that you are two of my favourite students. Both of you sacrifice so much for others and look to help them in your own unique ways. Your shy insight vs her bold exuberance, both light up my classroom. I would be genuinely delighted to help find a solution for you".

Mei couldn't find the words to thank her enough, touched to her heart and feeling emotion in a way that left her barely able to move herself. 

Her happiness, strange and debilitating though it was, couldn't wholly last. As she went into the quad to head to class, still a while early, she saw a pale-faced Yuzu being berated by a girl in another class. There was cruel spite in the other girl's face.

"Hey, Lesbo! I hear you kiss girls! Why don't you go back to your old school where they want you, and stop creeping all us girls out?"

Her girlfriend was speechless, being struck right where it hurt. And Mei felt her emotions running away from her. She spent so long disconnecting from them, shielding herself so she could control them with a dam, but now she felt hot anger as someone hurt the one she loved. She felt, unfiltered, the fear and confusion oozing from Yuzu and could hardly stand it. How dare someone make her Yuzu feel like that?! How dare they?!

"Is there something wrong, Tanaka-Chan?" Despite everything, Mei's voice was flat. Ice. The coldness of it had an impact and the bully looked uncertain for a moment, before doubling up on her approach.

"Well, if it isn't Aihara Mei. I knew you hadn't grown out of the fancying girls phase, too frigid to ever please a man." (The crassness of what she was saying offended Mei regardless of the hurt directed on Yuzu and her. This was deeply impolite to discuss at all. At her school, **her** school it was an abomination). "But I thought at least you had the class to fall for someone less stupid than this empty dumb blonde bimbo".

Yuzu actually started to cry now, silently, struggling to control the tears with dignity but the hurt etched on her face.

_That's it._

"I deeply, deeply recommend thinking before you speak again, Tanaka." Now there was a wobble in her voice, and in her chest, but it was the wobble of an earthquake prepared to be unleashed, maybe fragile but devastating. "If Yuzu is stupid, then as she came several places higher than you in the last exams, what does that make you?"

That drew a blush.

"And as for speaking to me like that, it seems unwise given who my family are, and who I am. Walk away now, and apologise, and I will forgive you and you can stay at this school. But don't you dare speak to anyone in my school like that again".

Tanaka didn't move, now fear on her face and in her legs, but she was more afraid of losing face by turning back than what Mei could say. For now.

"Fine. Yes, I like girls. One girl. This girl. I love Yuzu, and she loves me, the rumours are true. I don't flaunt this at school because it is improper, the way you have flaunted your boorishness, but it is true. I love her and anything you say to harm her, harms me. This is your last warning. If you speak to or about us in that regard ever again, I will destroy you. I won't take pleasure in it, but I won't tolerate you here, and neither will anyone else. I am going to walk away now, with my beloved, and you are going to shut up, go to class, and never deign to speak to me again, or you will see what I can do."

The words grew in intensity and fury and Mei had to find an outlet for her passion before she blew up. The fire in her eyes and her voice blew Tanaka's shell of fake bravery away, and tears in her eyes the other girl nodded, head down, and fled. 

_Just this once, I need to break the rules. I can't hold it in._

Comforting her now bemused, conflicted, crying, smiling girlfriend, Mei took her face into her hands, and kissed her. Just once, but long and hard, heart pounding just as she knew Yuzu's was.

"She is mine and I am hers. Sorry for the undignified display, it won't happen again. Just know that if you hurt Yuzu, you hurt me."


	16. Chapter 16

From the moment that Mei had kissed her in front of everyone in that schoolyard (an act that had luckily not received any punishment but a stern talking to aimed at both of them from one of the teachers - apparently their relationship was fine, but the public display of affection had been improper), Yuzu had been driven to distraction. Luckily none of her classes this afternoon were worth any credit, because all she could focus on was what she wanted Mei to do to her as soon as they got home, her panties already thoroughly damp. 

Gods, having her claim me like that in front of everyone, and come out of her usual shell to protect me against that bitch, that was amazing, and so sexy. I just love feeling loved by her, and feeling like she isn't ashamed to be known to be with me.

Eventually the neverending day of school ended, and Yuzu noticed that none of the other girls were giving her a wide berth. In fact, several of them made an obvious effort to come up to her and congratulate her on her relationship.

"I think you and Mei are really cute together. It's really sweet how you look out for each other!"

"I thought there was something going on between you! Good for you, she's really pretty, isn't she?"

"Hey! Most of us really don't mind that you're a lesbian, don't listen to what that cow was saying earlier. Besides, with Mei as your girlfriend, it's not like we have to worry about your eyes wandering and leering at us in the changing rooms. You two are super-hot."

"Maybe you can get Aihara-San to relax a little bit. She's so tense, but she seems really happy around you."

Maybe some people did have a problem with it, but they seemed to be kept away by the supportive looks and smiles she was getting from girls much more understanding that Yuzu was expecting, a wonderful tonic for the emotional fear of rejection she had felt when Tanaka had started to attack her. It all just made her happier and more excited to be alone with Mei to show her appreciation later on. 

The last person to talk to her before Mei came out from finishing off some council duties after class was her best friend, Taniguchi Harumi, who gave her a smile and a kiss on the cheek.

"Well, I was worried about you for a moment there but in the end that went well! I never thought I'd see Mei so open and passionate about her feelings, but that really was amazing. She really truly must love you to risk her reputation and dignity."

"She does. She's a really amazing person, she's just grown this cold exterior to protect herself because the world has hurt her and she doesn't know how to deal with it all. Speaking of people who are better than the mask they put on, how are you and Matsuri getting on?"

Harumin blushed. "I don't know what you mean..."

Smiling, Yuzu replied, "I'm pretty sure you do. I've seen you too spending time together, and I think she likes you. Obviously she can be immature and manipulative but I think you're tough enough to stamp down on that and embrace her sweeter side."

Stammering, Harumin changed the subject. "Well, uh, I'll bear that in mind, but I should stop distracting you now. There's a great sale on at Tsumori Chisato, I'd invite you but, um, it looks like you might have other things to do this evening. Your fiancée is here."

Spinning around, Yuzu saw Mei approaching, intense eyes on her but the ghost of a smile on her face. They said goodbye to Harumin and set off for home. Out of character, Mei started to talk.

"I have to be honest, that was a bit... liberating. I really must make sure not to lose control like that again though, school really isn't the appropriate place for romance."

"Oh really, my Azalea Mei-Chan? Where is, then?" She teased back.

The look she got in return send electricity down her spine, butterflies in her stomach and a waterfall between her legs.

"Our room. Tonight."

Dry mouth and heart thumping, Yuzu managed to hold it together to make dinner for her mum and Mei, altogether satisfactory given the tempest inside her mind and chest, and calm down to read a few chapters of her book. It was nearly finished, and she needed to think about what to read next, glad that Mei had gotten her into this habit. She was even thinking about doing English or Japanese Literature after school at University. Art was her strongest suit, but she wanted to be as useful as possible to Mei in her chairman role and to be able to support her at work as well as at home, and she thought a language or literature might be better suited to that. She knew Mei had spoken to the school careers counseller earlier and she guessed she ought to as well.

The evening flew by and Mama went out to meet some old friends, leaving them alone in the house with the warning that she'd be back before midnight.

Mei practically dragged her up the stairs as soon as the front door had shut, leading Yuzu eagerly by the arm into their room and twirling her lightly so that she landed sitting on the bed, hungry look in both of their eyes. Yuzu realised she was biting her lower lip, staring at Mei's blouse as she undressed her in her mind. But she was a good girl and had promised to let Mei keep control, so waited patiently.

She knew she wouldn't have to wait long.

"Yuzu blossom, unbutton your top. It's time to give you a reward for being such a good brave girl, even with that nasty person earlier."

Being called a good girl by her made Yuzu tingle down below. She started to pop her buttons with her shaking fingers, wanting to hurry to the next part.

Mei undid Yuzu's hair and pulled her unbuttoned shirt off with alacrity. Then she straddled her, kissing her face and her neck, dragging moans from Yuzu. As she suckled at the top of Yuzu's shoulder, Yuzu whispered in her ear, "You were my hero today, saving me at school, now here I'm yours, Mei, I'll do whatever you want. I'm always yours."

"And I'll always protect you, and you me, and I'll never let anyone hurt you again, and if it's me hurting you again I'll try whatever it takes to fix it," Mei replied as she tugged off her own top. "Now help me take my bra off and you have permission to do whatever it is your thinking about now to my breasts."

She couldn't deny that, and within seconds Mei was topless, chest at her face height and she buried herself in the bountiful cleavage in front of her, inhaling her body scent and kissing away as Mei stroked her now loose hair.

"Do you want to taste me, Yuzu blossom? Does thinking about kissing my wet pussy get you excited?" Mei's burrowing and ardent gaze was a furnace, baring the blaze of emotions in her heart, as intense and intimidating now full of love and lust as it had been months ago when it seemed so inscrutable. Yuzu felt the depth of emotion Mei endured, channelled across in those open eyes, devoid of their usual tint of sadness.

 _She loves me and she wants me._ Yuzu felt giddy and breathless as well as soaked below at the knowledge of how powerfully her lover felt about her. _Thank you Mei for letting me in, to letting me see how you feel, even in this voiceless manner._

She gave the tiniest nod, an acquiescence and an oxymoron proving her fortitude with her meekness, an act of sheer trust.

"First take off my bottoms my love, see what you have done to me." Within moments, she had, and as ever Yuzu was struck dumb and almost high on the glorious sight of Mei's beautiful flower, pink, gently parted slit coated in sweet honey, begging to be suckled, its bouquet unique to her, arousing in Yuzu's knowledge that nobody else would ever get this view again but her.

"Smell me, Yuzu, tell me how I smell, how I make you feel"

"It's amazing Mei, like the heavy fertile air of late evening in, um, May. You make me feel so wanted, loved. Please let me taste you!"

Mei's sudden kiss was mild as a mother's, gentle as a breeze in contrast to the fierce fervour of her eyes, teasing her lips as she pulled them both up to stand.

"Soon my love. But first your reward for being so brave."

She span Yuzu around, leaning her into the bed as she pecked the back of Yuzu's shoulder with dainty kisses, claimed her with a lick of the ear and a hand on her breast that teased and snuck under the cup of her bra before a second one snapped the whole item of clothing off.

Mei expertly undressed her with one hand as she murmured about how Yuzu was such a "good girl" and deserved to be made to feel happy, whilst the second hand inched its way tantalising to her pubic line. Mei tested the waters of Yuzu'' arousal, the latter now just in panties, jeans around her calfs and mouth hanging silently open in a soundless sigh. Then she entered, immediately striking a rhythm with two fingers that made it clear that Yuzu was to come and hard and soon.

"Don't hold back, dear. Cry out when your body wants it. Tell the world what I am doing to you, who is doing it to you, whose you are!"

Now the fingers were moving frantically inside her slippery passage, wet sounds obvious, Mei's other hand floating across her body touching here and there, now a nipple, now a thigh, now her wonderfully sensitive clit.

"Ohhhhh! You're making me come! Mei! My beautiful girlfriend, it's Mei, she's making me come and I'm hers and my pussy is hers, whenever, forever!" 

As soon as she finished spasming, Mei bent her over the bed, squeezing her arsecheeks and whipping off the fragrant panties, now showering her backs of her thighs with kisses, before diving into her femininity, devouring her and chaining straight into a second orgasm that saw Yuzu beg her for more and squeal her name again. Then she moved her tongue North and licked at her rosebud between her cheeks to prolonged groaning.

Eventually, Yuzu's reward was over and she eagerly repaid the favour, glorying in her role as Mei's submissive and delighting in Mei's rapid orgasm as she ate her out, sticky ambrosia on her face and her heart full of satisfaction at how turned on her fiancee had been, moreso than usual. Mei even let Yuzu bring her to several orgasms, both girls using their fingers and vibrators on each other in turn and together.

There was no time for the strap on tonight with Mama to return soon and both tiring out. Mei had said that one day she would ask Yuzu to fuck her with it, but at the moment felt uncomfortable with the reminder of male coercion that the toy being used on her brought to mind, plus Yuzu was very happy receiving anyway. Mei being in charge had been a way to empower her and avoid any link to prior, negative experiences, but Yuzu also loved relinquishing control and being told what to do and nothing turned her on more than being called Mei's "good girl". She felt she might even respond to dirtier submissive terms than that but Mei wasn't interested in being much ruder.

As Yuzu lay in Mei's lap, the sex over for tonight and sleep beginning to creep in, Mei spoke up.

"I need you to know how special you are to me. I never share my feelings, never, but you draw them out and when I feel yours it feels overwhelming and powerful but not scary like when I feel other people's. I know it seems forceful to claim you as mine, but you are, in that I am completely dedicated to you. You know that, right?"

"I do, Mei. I love you, and I'm glad to be yours. I don't want this to change right now."

"Ok." She stroked Yuzu's hair, strewn about at the moment after their energetic activities. "I've been thinking a lot about the future, and if you go and see the Careers advisor soon, we can work out a plan for next year. She thinks she can find a university that suits both of us and we can live together. As another type of family."

Yuzu nodded. Nothing would make her happier, and she would do whatever she needed to do to maximize her chances of not holding Mei back, in choice of university, in running the school, in life.

"Nakamura-San thinks if you try you can basically get into any university for a Humanities or Arts degree. So we should have options. Either way, thinking about the future so much lately has made me realise one thing and I want to make sure it's ok with you. I want to have a child with you one day. One we grow together and raise together. To be there and give the support my mother never gave me. Is that ok?"

Yuzu rolled over to stare into Mei's violet eyes in all their eerie beauty. For the first time since they'd made up and become engaged, even counting the speech in front of the school governors, Mei seemed nervous. 

She needn't have been.

"Mei, you really don't have to ask... Yes. I would love to have a baby with you."

 


	17. Chapter 17

Yuzu couldn't wait to go to school the following morning, their first open day (though they'd be subtle about it, they both agreed) at school as an official couple in front of everyone. She had also booked an appointment, like Mei the day before, to visit the school counsellor and was excited to explore her future options with Mei- she took her promise to support Mei's plans for their school as her wife very seriously, and knew that a respectable degree would help with that, even if she suspected that the actual economics and business side of things wouldn't be her forte.

She had been thinking about what they had said about having a family together, too, and knew that whilst it needed more exploration, at least initially it would make a lot more sense for her to bear a child for them, if that was what they felt was the best way to proceed. She had spent the time whilst Mei was in the shower googling options, and reckoned there were three likely ones: adoption, standard artificial insemination or implantation of one of them with the other's fertilised eggs. They would talk more later, but Yuzu was keen for the last one if possible, and loved the prospect of bearing Mei's biological child. She saved the pages on her phone, knowing it was best to bring it up in detail a bit after the careers talk today, but that it would probably impact what she asked about. She then rushed through her morning wash and prepared for school, Mei waiting for her as usual.

To her delight and relief, the reaction at school to their relationship was still largely positive. Tanaka avoided them both like the plague, aware that Mei was not a person for idle talk - if she caused trouble, Mei would react and she would regret it.

The world seemed a sunnier place, classes were easy going now that she had learnt a good foundation in studying, quite a few other girls were friendlier with her, apparently her "differentness" making more sense now, and Harumin chased off a couple who had been muttering hurtful remarks under their breath. The careers advisor was expecting her during the break, and said that she'd already pencilled some options that might work for her and Mei together for university, but questioned her carefully about what Yuzu wanted. And she shared that honestly: she wanted to go to university close to Mei, and live with her; she wanted a good degree, so that she added weight to their relationship, with its unorthodox nature, and didn't hold Mei back in running the school; she wanted that degree to be in literature or art, probably, as she felt she was stronger in those subjects; she wanted to be able to work initially to financially help out but felt it was likely, though they'd have to decide formally, that she might stop for at least a time to be a housewife and mother to their children; and she wanted to become at least proficient to support Mei and help out at the school should Mei want to bear children at some point.

It was a lot of information, and they didn't have time to go into details this week, but the teacher promised to look into it all and meet her and Mei together in a couple of weeks. She said all that should be viable if Yuzu was willing to put the work in- certainly she was set for a good grade in literature, and had turned her academic record around spectacularly in the last year.

Yuzu left buoyed. She knew she could work as hard as was needed if she had a target, and her self-confidence in general and in her intellect had never been higher.

_Maybe we will get our happy ending!_

They breezed through the rest of the week, starting some mild wedding prep in the evenings and watching films together with Mama, with the extra anticipation of Papa visiting next week. They thought they had probably settled on a wedding venue, a country house in a beautiful but of the countryside by a lake a couple of hours outside town, which was the source of Mei's happiest childhood memories. Nowhere really stood out for Yuzu, so she was happy to pick somewhere special for her wife to be. They had a lot of catering options to work their way through, but had decided in general they wanted a few western additions like a cake, as well as Japanese ones like San San Kudo. They would probably try to have an engagement dinner, as was traditional, fairly soon as well.

They would both wear white, they had some ideas for the music, and started to draft out a guestlist...all was heading on schedule especially so early on, and that Sunday, after a Saturday spent at the beach (the weather was meant to be glorious), they would check out the venue and fit in a meeting with a potential caterer as well.

They did fall on one little snag though when the practicalities of "when" came up after dinner on Friday. In Japanese law they were both minors, and though they could marry once they were over 18, which Yuzu was and Mei would be soon (Yuzu was running a side line in present hunting even as they wedding-planned!), they needed parental consent before the age of 20, and planned to marry before then if possible. Obviously they had Mei's paternal and Yuzu's maternal consent, and Yuzu's father had died when she was young. She missed him sometimes (had dyed her hair to be a living memory of him) but his consent wasn't an issue. The law was unclear now whether with their parents married, that consent would count as enough, or whether Mei needed permission from her mother.

Grandfather was looking into it, but if the latter were the case there would be an issue. Mei hadn't spoken to her mother in over a decade, and had never had a close relationship. Neither, she said, had Papa. She had never spoken much about her, and quietened now when the topic came up again. Yuzu would have to probe more gently later on, maybe on their weekend trip. She changed the subject and after dinner they all retired to their bedrooms.

Just after making love on Friday night, going to bed early to be ready for the next day and having sex quietly to avoid disturbing Mama, with Mei giving Yuzu the instruction to stay silent, and Yuzu struggling, biting her lip, burying her head in the pillows and then kissing Mei hard at climax in order to obey, Mei gave her a "gift for being a wonderful girlfriend". Calling her a good girl, sending new shivers across her femininity, for being so quiet, Mei gave her a wrapped package.

"Oh, Mei-Chan, you are so sweet! New books, just as I'd finished my current one too! **The Waiting Years**   and  **Death in Midsummer** \- those are your two favourites aren't they? I can't wait to read them and get to see another aspect of you, I love you so much."

But she hadn't finished.

"There's something else... Open the first book."

Something slid out onto the floor. She looked down, picked it up and gasped as she saw in her hand a ring, nearly the twin of the one she had given Mei months ago.

"The ring you gave me is one of my most important possessions, and it gives me solace and strength whenever things got tough, especially without you there. I thought you should have one in return, an equal pledge of our love."

The happiness inside her overflowed and poured down Yuzu's face in tears of joy. Speechless for what seemed like an aeon, she hugged her lover tight, before finally being able to express how she felt.

"Mei, I will treasure this for all my life. Love you forever."

"Love you forever, Yuzu blossom."

And the week ended with Yuzu going down on Mei, the younger girl muffling her own cries with both their underwear in her mouth as she came rapidly and profusely over Yuzu's face, both girls afire with love for the other and avidly awaiting their chance to plan their wedding together that weekend. But first, the beach called.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies, I don't know the geography around Tokyo well at all. Perusing google maps reveals there are many nearby beaches - I have intentionally not picked a specific one as I don't want to write something foolish by accident.
> 
> Also, fans of The Quintessential Quintuplets will hopefully enjoy their brief cameo!

The next morning Yuzu excitedly packed for the beach. She had messaged ahead and most of their friends could make it: Harumin and her sister (though the older Taniguchi would likely not hang out with the high school crowd for very long and had her own friends to see), Matsuri, Himeko and even Nina and Sara had agreed to come along, leaving Nene and Kayo the only people who couldn't get there. The day was meant to be bright and clear, and later on genuinely hot. Yuzu had picked out a new costume and she couldn't wait to see Mei's reaction to it. Not to forget she couldn't wait to see Mei in her own swimsuit, either...

After carefully picking out towels, some beach game equipment, sunglasses and suncream, as well as some chic clothes to wear there (and to cover herself once the time for bikinis was done), as well as donning the beautiful ring Mei had just given her, she picked up the picnic she had prepared the night before and joined her sister, already organised and waiting to go, obviously.

The train was just a short bus journey away, one that they spent hand in hand. As it happened they arrived for the same train as Harumin, her sister and Matsuki, Himeko already ahead of them and the other girls coming from further out. They spent the journey catching up, even Mei talking to Mitsuko about ideas for the school and how to improve the student council, and playing some card games. Before they knew it, they had rolled in to their destination.

The beach was moderately busy but there was still enough space, and Himeko had already staked out an area for their beach-towels, so they headed straight to the changing rooms to get into their costumes and apply sunscreen. Everyone had gone all out, Yuzu feeling very confident in her gold and green bikini, and deeply satisfied at the hungry look it received from Mei before she caught ahold of herself. In return, she felt her cheeks blush as she appreciated Mei's perfect figure and long legs in her rich purple two-piece. Harumi wore a yellow bikini that looked great on her, Matsuri paying careful attention to her. She had a pink one piece that was very cute. Mitsuko wore an elegant black costume. Then they had to apply sun-screen, Harumin starting with her sister before she and Matsuki creamed each other, and Yuzu took deep pleasure in receiving her lotion tenderly and with some massage mixed in from her fiancee, before returning the favour, loving the feel of Mei pushing back into her hands as she caressed with slick fingers and worked the cream into her back and shoulders, lingering intentionally over the tops of her breasts and her thighs.

_I'm such a pervert._

Himeko was in her blue one-piece underneath some light casual clothes, and once they all arrived, she stripped off and asked Mei coyly to put sun lotion on her, but was sabotaged somewhat when Yuzu enthusiastically offered to do it herself, which the other girl tolerated with a sullen look on her face. They started off by sunbathing, the Tachibana sister texting to say they were nearly there. Yuzu rested a little, turned over and chatted some more to Harumin and started to read one of her new books. Finally Sara and Nina were here, one in lavender and one in light blue, and they started to take turns swimming in the balmy ocean, Yuzu sneaking glances at Mei's arse when she went to the water with Himeko and Nina, before she joined them a few minutes later. 

After some paddling and wading, Mei headed deeper into the sea.

_She swims so elegantly, it makes me feel like a clumsy oaf. She looks really happy here, I'm glad we came, it's like her natural habitat._

Yuzu swam after her, and they had a little mini-race, before she gave up and went back towards shallower water. Mei followed. She was still alight with joy, even going so far as to splash Yuzu, then when the other girl opened her mouth to complain she shut her up with a salty kiss. 

Soon it was time for lunch, mostly supplied by Yuzu though supplemented by the sanguine Sara and Himeko. She blushed with pride as everyone congratulated her on the quality of the food, and they ate happily, leaving space for fresh lemonade and ice cream later. After lunch, Harumin's big sister said farewell and went to mingle with her college friends, and they lay down for a bit, recuperating before they planned to swim again in a bit.

However their rest was broken by an interjection from another group of girls, asking if they wanted to join them to play beach volleyball, seeing as how that would nicely make two teams of 6. It seemed impolite to refuse, plus it sounded like fun, so after some persuasion of Mei and Himeko, the most reluctant, they agreed to join.

_Those girls seem really familiar, I'm sure I know them from somewhere..._

They were, frankly, beautiful. Yuzu had no eyes for anyone but Mei but the objective attractiveness of them was hard to deny. They all had red hair (surely not natural) in different hairstyles, pretty features with big blue eyes (rare for Japanese people) and lush curves exposed in their bikinis. When one of them called for another, naming her as "Nino", she realised where she knew them from.

_No way! The Nakano Quintuplets!_

They had gone to her last school, and she knew them on fairly friendly terms, though not that closely as they were from a richer crowd and tended to stick to themselves anyway. They had looked much more alike before  - now differentiating with very different styles of hair and colour schemes. They had also filled out: she remembered them as elegant and slim, still pretty, but their features were finer and their busts if nothing else had gotten much larger. Animated by her discovery, she introduced herself and her friends, Mei as her girlfriend (to her inner delight when Mei smiled and nodded), and happily saw the recognition on their faces. They then named themselves - Ichika with short hair and a smirk on her face, Nino with butterfly ribbons in long hair with bangs and an aloof standing, shy Miku with her floppy fringe and bashful smile, energetic Yotsuba with her bunny rabbit bow and stubborn, stoic Itsuki with her cowlick. After briefly catching up with Yotsuba, the girl she knew best,  they headed to the court chatting and buzzing, the cute interactions between the quints sparking the mood amongst the whole group.

They played several matches, initially with Yuzu, Mei and Himeko with Miku, Yotsuba and Itsuki against the others but soon mixing the teams up. Yotsuba, then Nina then Yuzu herself were the best players, but it was all fun regardless. They were joined briefly in a couple of games by a group of slightly cocky boys, a bit older than them, who made a few passes at the girls and Yuzu didn't really like. They tried to show off and one of them got upset when Mei blanked his attempt at hitting on her outrageously and another sulked when Yotsuba showed him up on the court, to the laughter of Nino and Harumin. They skulked off after 6 of them played Yotsuba, Ichika, Yuzu, Nina, Matsuri and Nino and lost, much to Yuzu's relief. They had been getting boisterous and presumptuous. 

 

The Nakanos joined the sisters for a dip and then an ice cream before they all had to head back home, and their group then laid in the sun for a little while longer. Soon Nina and Sara had to go, and Harumin and Matsuri (apparently, though Harumin whispered it to her and asked Yuzu to keep it a secret for now, on a date), and Himeko wanted to go to the station to buy a couple of things before leaving. That left Mei and Yuzu alone on the beach, still in their swim wear, romantically watching the sun sink towards the horizon.

They were just about to pack up to go home and catch the train with Himeko when a younger kid threw a frisbee errantly a little while away, and it soared over his playmate and a good few metres past where the two of them were sitting in peaceful, unawkward silence. Yuzu clambered to her feet to chase after it, running to where it stuck in the sand at an angle. She thought about throwing it back but decided the best thing to do was to hand it over safely, so she dashed off toward the kids, whilst Mei, now standing, watched affectionately from a distance. 

The children were grateful and spend a couple of minutes asking her a few questions, and Yuzu, captured by their youthful exuberance, got caught up in answering them until her bubble was shattered by a piercing cry of "get off me!"

_That was Mei._

She spun to see what was happening, and to her dismay and building fury one of the young men that had played volleyball with them earlier was accosting Mei. He had grabbed her arm and she was trying to pull free, but weakly, as if fighting back were a struggle. Yuzu caught her gaze and saw that her stare was blank. Face was a dull panic, she was nearly paralysed, her movements feeble as the bigger man held her tight, loudly calling her a cock-tease and claiming her revealing outfit was asking for his attention no matter how much she tried to deny it and taunt him.

Yuzu started to run. They were only a few metres away and she could see the moisture in Mei's eyes, and the fear in her mouth. She found it hard to fight because she was used to men taking what they wanted from her, but she was trying, urging her body against her shock and the memories she was trying to repress. Yuzu saw all of this in her plaintive look, knew she had been coerced and manhandled before. The man called her a slut and grabbed her breast. She tried to shake him off, Yuzu now nearly there. Then he kissed her and she visibly froze, forced into an unwelcome memory and forced into the role of a victim that she wasn't yet ready to face. 

Yuzu arrived. She had never really understood what hate meant before, never felt truly angry at another human being but now, now she wanted to hurt this foul being that was inflicting Mei's worst fear upon her. She had no idea how to punch, but her instinct kicked in and she threw her clenched fist at the side of this abuser's face. As hard as she could. She lacked technique but had more than enough coordination and connected cleanly staggering back the man who was now bleeding from his lip, and had let go of Mei. His look of stunned pain lasted a second before the threat of violence washed across it and he glared at Yuzu with murder in his eyes, chilling her to her soul, whilst Mei had fallen to her knees, nearly catatonic, hugging herself and shaking with sobs torn from her lips. 

That sound melted the ice Yuzu felt in her belly and fuelled it to become a pit of lava.

Mei's attacker's snarl and grimace of rage lasted mere moments before her protective wrath drove her knee into his groin with all her might, and that snarl became a castrated yelp, his fury agony. As he collapsed in a heap, she kicked him there again for good measure, this time with colder more deliberate savagery. She helped up the shivering Mei whilst he writhed and retched, helpless on the floor in pain as Mei had been in his violent grasp. 

"Yu..zu, I'm, *sniffle* so sorry..."

She hugged her as tight as she could, trying to let her warmth heal her, hating this man with all her heart for the possible carnage he had done to Mei's progress. 

"You have nothing, nothing at all to be sorry for. This thing tried to take from you and it's not your fault you have a bad past for that kind of thing. I love you and just like you wouldn't let that bitch hurt me a few days ago, I won't let this scumbag hurt you now." She turned to him. "If I ever see you again, I will call the police. I might do it anyway. But first, I will stamp you little testicles into jam. If you follow us right now, I swear to the gods you'll wake up in a hospital, I want to hurt you so much."

"Let's go Mei. We have an important day tomorrow, and we can't let men like this steal our joy from us."

They went home, Mei holding onto Yuzu like a child to her teddy bear, less shell-shocked and recovering but still profoundly upset. They told Himeko, and Yuzu had to strain to stop her from running back and fighting the boy who had done it. Mei cried a little on the journey, Yuzu comforting her and stroking her hair. And that night, she explicitly refused to pressure Mei at all, just holding her in bed together, in chaste affection.

"Yuzu, I love you. You are so amazing to me."

"I know, I love you too, Mei-chan"

"Good night."

 

 

 

 


	19. Chapter 19

Mei woke.

The first thing she did when self-awareness returned to her was to rub her face, where the kiss her attacker had stolen still itched, tainting her lips. She still felt a shadow, and echo of revulsion and self-loathing for not being strong enough to push him away, not being strong enough to say no in the past when people had decided they wanted to touch her because of her beauty. That they were entitled to, somehow, because she was a girl and attractive to them. The way she had let her sense of duty trap her into an arranged engagement with a man she knew to be an unfaithful, manipulative, gold-digging creep that she had no interest in, just because society and convention said that she needed a man to run her family business. Amamiya: a rat of a man, despite the looks that all the straight girls swooned over. No, not a rat, they were useful. A wasp, parasitic and hurtful and toxic, like her. The memory of things he had coerced her into doing, thankfully never as far as seizing her body completely (he was saving that for marriage, he had said, though maybe he had been secretly saving it with his mistress), made her gag. But she never could have fought him. Her strength to fight, and to be herself, for herself - that all came from Yuzu, her beautiful, kindly, silly Yuzu.

Who wasn't beside her in bed like she expected. She couldn't feel her warmth, hear her heavy dreamer's breathing. She thrust a hand out to reach her her, but she was gone. 

She panicked. 

_Yuzu? Where are you?!_

Eyes wide, now bolt upright, she looked around frantically.

_I've driven her away. She saw that I couldn't push away that man and realised what a soiled, broken person I am. She's realised I'm toxic and she's gone. This is my fault. I drive everyone away - first mother, then father, then everyone at school, and Yuzu, but now that she's come back I've lost her again..._

"Yuzu?!" She shouted that, dread in her voice.

Footsteps. Frantic. A swinging door.

"Mei-chan, what's wrong? Are you ok?" It was her, anxiety all over her face, apron on. Not gone, now just worried. 

_I'm so stupid. What do I think of her, that she would abandon me? Why can't I think of anyone but myself?_

Tears. "I, *sniff* thought you had left me. Because of last night, and because you realised that I'm not pure like you... I'm sorry..."

"Oh, Mei. I love you, and I'd never leave you, especially not for something that other people have done to you. None of that is your fault, people taking advantage of your selflessness and your feelings of obligation. I'm here for you, like you are for me, we just have different demons. Now, I'd just gone to cook you pancakes! I'll be back in 2 minutes and we can have breakfast in bed, and if you want, we can talk all about it. But you don't have to, ok?"

 

She nodded and Yuzu headed back downstairs, leaving Mei feeling foolish and neurotic, but still soothed. Before long her fiancée was back, breakfast and coffee on a tray, and they sat, and after eating some of the most delicious pancakes she had ever had and sitting, wrestling with whether to speak or not, in silence for a few minutes, Mei started to talk. Yuzu only interjected to clarify details, but kept her hand on Mei's and her eyes on hers throughout, steadying her trembling voice.

Mei spoke without lingering, using plain unornate sentences and the barest detail except where specifics had been burnt into her memory.

She spoke about how she had been fondled by one of her grandfather's business contacts when she was 12, on a couple of occasions, him making a pass whilst drunk and her paralysed into inaction as he told her this would keep him helping her grandfather's business. Not much more happened other than inappropriate words and some stroking, but it made her feel dirty and she had felt relief when the man had moved to another part of Japan, but kept her feelings of maculation bottled deep inside, unable to express how she had felt and scared of what any revelation would make people thing of her. She spoke about how another work partner had grabbed her arse and kissed her when he was visiting late at night and grandfather was away. She had been 14. He had blackmailed her into kissing him again, saying it would bring her family shame if her grandfather found out about it, then had forced her, using strength, to touch his penis. She had found it disgusting, and when he tried to force himself upon her again, she had tried to refuse but using words and his power he had made her take him in her mouth. Grandfather had found out that he'd tried to harass her (but not that he'd succeeded) and was livid- he never spoke to her about it, which made her feel like it was her fault, but he did destroy her harasser's career.

She spoke about how at school that same year, she'd been struggling to meet her own expectations, under mountains of pressure that hardened her, and had been mentored by an older girl, who had started stealing kisses from her to "calm her" and for her to "pay her back" for her support, which she had passively tolerated because she realised she found her senpai attractive, and that addition of discovering she liked women added to her confusion. The older girl had eventually stolen more than a kiss one evening when she reached down between Mei's legs, saying she would be gentle as it was her first time, and strumming her to a confused, detached climax, one that left her unsatisfied and empty but numb from the stress and the emotions of dealing with her grandfather and all the expectations, and she took that numbness like a drug, taking it on several more times, repaying the favour as her mentor demanded, until she left the school and Mei was engaged, without her input, to her teacher.

She finally spoke about how that man had demanded he could kiss her whenever he liked, as she was his future property, and how he used his hands freely, and he too inserted fingers into her on several occasions, though never reaching the pleasure of orgasm. How he made her, demanding it was her duty to him, the school and her family, work his organ till he spilt his seed in her hands or her mouth.

When she had finished, lifted by a strange catharsis, Yuzu just hugged her.

"It will never be like that again. I will never use sex with you as anything other than a wonderful, mutually consensual celebration of our love. And if someone tries to touch you like that again, like last night, woman or man I will kick their butt, somehow"

"I know. I love you."

Yuzu just held her, not sure if anything more carnal was appropriate given Mei's narration, but Mei was hungry to reassert the purity of their sex. She let her lover know with fierce kisses, and they urgently stripped each other, due to visit a venue with Mama soon. Within a minute, Mei had her mouth around Yuzu, relishing the scent and flavour she now associated entirely with pleasure and love, and over the next hour whilst Mama roused herself from her lie-in, they made delicate, sweaty love to each other, tasting each other, slowly using the strap on, rubbing their sensitive parts together, until Mei felt clean with the glorious sensation of Yuzu coming under her tongue and touch, and elevated by her own orgasms, free from that old numbness, replaced by actual rapture. An almost holy experience. She delighted in being sticky with Yuzu's juices, on her face and over her own netherregions from when they had scissored, the filthiness still cleansing. She prided herself on Yuzu's muffled, contented cries. She soaked in the feel of Yuzu's hot hands on her sensitive breasts, teasing fingers on her clit, her perineum, the small of her back, and the feel of Yuzu's satin skin under her own, her plush, perky breasts and firm buttocks squirming under her touch.  

Ume's call for departure from downstairs called them back to reality, and with Mei promising her now completely pliant darling some more kinky fun later on (followed by a compliant but, unlike her own history, happily consenting nod and hungry look), they redressed, applied deodorant and perfume to mask the blatant traces of their encounter on their bodies, and joined Mama in the car.


	20. Chapter 20

They bundled into the car. The journey wasn't set to be particularly long, but it would still give them some nice girl time all together with Mama.

They started with a bit of small talk chat, but naturally things quickly moved across to discussing wedding plans.

"So, this is one of the venues you had in mind... Any particular reason girls?"

"Yes Mama. Papa and I used to go near here when I was a little kid, and swim in the lake and walk in the woods. We even used to go when my birth mother was still around, I think. It's the last place I can really remember all 3 of us being happy together, and I wanted it as a reminder that we can all be happy as a family, you and Papa as well as me and Yuzu. Because we've all chosen love."

Yuzu felt a bit startled. _That's the most information that Mei's given unprompted on her mother ever, I think. I guess we should probe a bit more, given that her consent might be important if the law decides a certain way is necessary._

She felt very intrusive pushing further though, especially given the emotionally draining few days Mei had had at school with Tanaka as well as on the beach and their discussion afterward. I'll bring it up later. Maybe in bed tonight, or in a few days, unless Mei decides it's the right time sooner.

They took the opportunity to listen to some prospective wedding music. They both wanted some delicate music to be played during the ceremony, including some Disney for Yuzu, and then more upbeat stuff for the meal and dancing. They listened through a selection of promising girl power songs and sweeping ballads in English and in Japanese, Ume singing along, Yuzu mentally remembering her favourites and Mei, of course, keeping a carefully scribed shortlist with notes in her wedding file.

As they parked up at the lakeside house, Yuzu thought about what was left to be done. The actual ceremony, though with Shinto elements as that was how they both nominally identified (such as exchanging the cups of sake), would be heavily Western/Christian influenced, but they still had a few traditions to sort out. They had fitted in the Yuino, made unconventional but much easier by their parents' own marriage, where families exchanged gifts as part of engagement, a few weeks ago, which had been nice if slightly awkward. They also needed to arrange their dresses, both the ceremony kimonos and the western style white bridal dresses for afterward, the hikidemono gifts for their guests and a lot of other tasks. They'd probably need to hire a host to help with the smooth running. Luckily they had a lot of time- more than they wanted if the law decided they had to track down Mei's mother.

Her daydreaming was interrupted as they walked though gorgeous grounds, with flourishing flora surrounding them, and a wonderful view of the still lake, so smooth it seemed to blend into the sky.

"Oh, it's beautiful!"

After a proper tour and private exploration of the elegant and understated dignity of the house itself, Yuzu had fallen in love with the location (not quite as firmly as she had with Mei but it was worryingly close!), and whispered so her fiancé.

"I think it's perfect! Now let's just hope the food is as good, it would be great to sort out a couple of things in one day."

Thankfully they weren't disappointed, with a feast of perfect dishes from canapes through to dessert, a smorgasbord of traditional and fusion cuisine masterpieces. They just had a little taste of each one but Yuzu was completely sold and Mei's usual mask of reservation broke out into a shocked look of delight that was indescribably endearing, a child like innocence that Yuzu loved was reserved mostly for her. The only thing they didn't do was the tiered cake that the girls both wanted but Yuzu had decided she'd quite like a crack at that herself. They talked about a few things during the testing. Well, Yuzu did. Mei seemed happy but lost somewhat in her own thoughts, which wasn't unusual- intense or half-there were her typical states, which is why seeing Mei truly relaxed always made Yuzu so happy. Mention of flowers came up, and Yuzu insisted that they were going to include Azaleas and Yuzu blossoms. "One flower for each of us." That got a very real smile as Mei gave the thought her full attention, which is what Yuzu had been aiming for.

Afterward Mama went away with the caterer to discuss wine, and pick some bottles for her to take back and test with Papa. Yuzu prepared to have another wander around the house, but Mei pulled her aside, hand firmly on hers, towing her daintily towards the exit.

"Come on. It's not sunset but I want to show you my third favourite view, and give you an idea of what it'll look like at the end of our special night."

True, the day was still light, the blue/silver of the sky reflected in the water to form a kingdom of clouds and light, shifting both up above and below, the nebulous shifting strands like the flaps of a graceful dress, silken and clean, almost tactile. Yuzu imagined the soothing massage of them across her face, mirrored in the delicate caress as Mei stroked her with floating fingers. The sun in the mid-sky shone like a beautiful jewel, it's water-shadow spreading a celestial aura that purely cut through the waters until something moved on them and they rippled, making the lake seem ablaze. It had been some ducks, settling on the surface.

_In the complex light of dusk, with the setting sun kissing the horizon and the waterline, this must look like a path of fire into the future, red/gold for love, lighting up the uncertain dark with the sureness of together._

That thought sprung to her mind, and though it embarrassed her, she couldn't help but share it with her love. Mei smiled, not surprised by the poetic notion. She knew the depths Yuzu had now.

"Isn't it heavenly?"

"It is, but you've intrigued me: which other views do you prefer to this?"

A rare blush and a bite of a lip.

"Well, uh, Mt Fuji when the top comes out of hiding and the trees are in blossom all around. And you, in the morning, half between wake and sleep."

A bit cheesy, but Yuzu would take that if it came as a flirty compliment from her stoic girlfriend!

Now back to her serious, superficially unflappable self, Mei turned to her.

"I didn't just bring you out here to enjoy the view though. I never thought I'd be the one bringing this up, but the way you've made me feel so mended talking to me about the past before, the way you helped me this morning... Usually talking about these deep feelings and the painful things that have happened to me just makes the wordd freeze up and the pain all flood back, but something about you, Yuzu, your infinite capacity for kindness and understanding, it means I can talk about these things and I feel... Lightened. Like for once someone can take a bit of my burden and I know I can trust you with it."

Her twilight eyes locked onto Yuzu's now.

"So I'm ready. I want to talk about my mother, what to do if we need to find her, and whether we should invite her back into our lives for the wedding at least, whether we need her blessing or not."

She pulled Yuzu's hand onto her hip and held her close, breath and quiet words making the other girl tingle.

"My past is important to you, because in part it has shaped me. But my future is important to me. Because it's yours. A shared gift. And no past pain can taint that for us. I am yours forever."


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again for the delay. I've worked 300 hours in the last 5 weeks at work, plus had a wedding to attend, baby appointments to go to and other stuff going on, but I'll try to be more prompt with updates going on.
> 
> This regular writing thing is hard

Yuzu kept quiet whilst encouraging her with her body, eyes and hands alone, rubbing Mei's knuckles softly. She knew this was a genuinely painful topic for her, even amongst many things she had long been reticent of talking about and was only just now slowly starting to open up about, and she was wary of pushing her betrothed too hard. The atmosphere of significance was built as the sun continued to dip below the tree-line, the sky ominously darkening but hope being offered by the nearly-full silver moon that had been hanging low in the sky for some time, waiting for her big brother to fully disappear and to take the main stage.

"How do I start?" Mei's expression could best be summed up as 'rue', compassionate regret. That and contemplation. "Yuzu-Chan, do you remember your father much at all?"

She didn't have to think too deeply on that one. Papa had died a long time ago when she was very little but Yuzu still remembered happy moments together, being carried through the air, playing games together and his deep voice singing a lullaby. She thought she could remember his face but perhaps that was a projection based on the photos of him she had seen. Nevertheless, she had a number of fragments of happy memories of her birth father, a happy impression for sure, as well as the recollection of how sad Mama had been when he was hit by a lorry, the time she had spent crying after the doctors couldn't save him. She summarised this to Mei, who squeezed her hand.

"I'm sorry you two had to go through that, though obviously I'm happier than I can describe that it eventually led you to me. I never had that relationship with my mother really."

She took a moment, a perpetual pause that filled the night, as Yuzu's heart, already tenderised by recalled her own father, cried out in shared pain.

"Mother left when I was 5, nearly 6. I have a very clear memory of my childhood in general, but the impression she made is sort of translucent, like a ghost. Or a spectre. So more of an impression like yours, but less happy. Mother never seemed happy at home, for what I presume are a number of reasons. She and Papa never really got on. The house was always tense, and I know now that she resented feeling like she had to put her life on hold to be at home and that she hadn't really wanted kids."

The sadness in Mei's eyes saturated the air somehow. No tears shining there, just undisguised sorrow.

"Maybe I'm misremembering, or more likely projecting how I feel back on how I remember things, but I can't really recall a warm moment from her. I think I can see some of myself in her now. My parents never got to marry for love, it had all been arranged by their parents. My mother had wanted to pursue a career but had never been allowed to, and I think she saw me as a burden, another reason she couldn't be who she wanted to be."

Mei paused, the silence disturbed by a quack from a listening duck. The contrast juxtaposed against the seriousness, the sincerity of what Mei was saying struck Yuzu as humorous, the listening bird trying to break the suspense. She didn't smile though, needing to hear what her loved one had to say, to support and console in this rare outpouring of feeling and memory. She gazed into the thrice mirrored light in her fiancee's beautiful eyes, shared from the life sustaining, warm Sun to the aloof, mysterious Moon, then via the fragile perfection of the serene reflection on the still water until it reached Mei. There was a metaphor there, she was sure.

Mei breathed and continued. "I can understand her a little, but it still hurts. That she never said she loved me. That she never smiled, I was never even a little consolation for her dead dreams. That she left, coldly and without letting me in to why. That she never came back, save one flying visit. I could understand the bitterness, the frustration that she had been trapped in this unhappy marriage and this unhappy life, with no satisfaction of her keen mind. But why couldn't I have been enough to at least make that hard?"

There were unshed tears in her voice now, a deep sorrow that had fuelled insecurity for over a decade. Instinctively, absolutely unable to leave Mei in anguish alone, Yuzu hugged her, and the tears flew out. She knew by now that Mei was letting herself feel, and refusing to exercise her iron self-control, which meant she was truly vulnerable, her emotions unfiltered and impossible to keep in, a thing she only shared with her because she knew she was utterly safe here, a sight that both made Yuzu feel honoured and trusted more than any words Mei could hand out but also cut her to her soul: just as Mei shared the pain of others if she didn't actively block it out, Yuzu couldn't see her Azalea hurt without hurting

"Why... wasn't I... good enough? I know... I was... a difficult child, but she... was my mother! Why couldn't she love me?!" She was hugging Yuzu tight now, the warm drops splattering on Yuzu's collar and cheek and the sounds tight, strained with sadness and guilt between air-starved sobs. 

"There, there. Hush, my love. You are enough, enough for me, and enough for yourself." She patted her back, making calming sounds until Mei felt able to speak up again. "I love you, Mei-Chan, and one thing we will always have is the knowledge that unlike your parents, we chose each other. Now, you don't have to go on, but if you want to, I'd love to talk more about it."

Red-eyed, Mei nodded. Sniffing, she spoke about the quiet arguments at home, the lack of compliments, the smiles from papa and frowns from mother. The deterioration of a once civil though sterile marriage, the shouting about being bored at home, looking after this strange child. (Yuzu winced at that, knowing Mei was stinging inside). The way Mei had started getting upset, and then been reprimanded first for her tears (kindly by her father and coldly by her mother) and then when she bottled it up for her sullen silence, and so had learnt to hide her anger and sadness from everyone including her conscious self. They spoke for at least half an hour, and as Yuzu learnt about how honestly frustrating things must have been for Mei's mother, and father, but also how hurtful that had been for Mei who had just wanted attention and for her family to be happy, she learnt more about her wife-to-be. And more about her ex-mother-in-law. And she came to several realisations as they were being beckoned in by her own Mama, wine discussion finally over.

Firstly, Mei's mother had been like Mei in some respects, putting on a mask to cover her own unhappiness. It was certainly possible that she too intentionally avoided Mei's emotions and her own to protect herself from pain at a situation she knew she was going to try and run from. Certainly she was what Mei could have ended up being, and in that came joy and hope - Mei's path had diverged from her mother's, and she had grown as a person in doing so. That promise of more joy in the future for Mei made Yuzu happy, as did the realisation that she herself had had no small say in changing Mei for the better. ( _Just like the song from Wicked_ , she smiled to herself.)

Secondly, they were going to have a great life together. When they had a child, they would learn from their parents' mistakes and love them with all of their hearts.

 

Thirdly, Mei was looking unburdened every minute of their talk. Shedding those tears had clearly had a cathartic effect, and Mei seemed to be understanding her own mother better as well, empathising with what had been a very imperfect situation.

 

"Feel better?" Mei nodded, colour back in her cheeks. She kissed Yuzu, all of her gratitude plain to feel in the passion and the length of their mouths meeting. "Talking to you always makes me feel better these days. You help me be able to feel. I love you."

"Lucky we are going to always be together then! We will be nothing like your parents were. We have chosen each other, for love, and I will never, ever get in the way of your life or your career, to shackle your beautiful, brilliant mind. I will never resent you, no matter what, and if you resent me, you only have to tell me and we will work together to fix it."

 

She took Mei's hand as they walked towards the carpark, set for a journey home and another week of school that were inching closer as dusk became true evening. 

"I'm glad you talked to me. And it was obviously cathartic for you. But I suspect there is much more to talk about, with me, but also with the subject of all of this. So, and it is up to you - this is just my opinion - I want to suggest this. I think you should get closure if nothing else, and maybe learn more and give her a second chance to be in your life. Regardless of whether she comes to the wedding or not, and whether we need her blessing or not, I think we should do it. Or you alone if you prefer, I can be by your side or at your back. I think we should confront your mother. Your birth mother."

A final silence hung in the air, the car metres away, Ume waiting patiently at the wheel.

Then Mei nodded one more time.

"Ok."


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do people want more sex, more story/character stuff or about the current balance going on?
> 
> Obviously there are big story moments building up, but I promise there will be a happy ending.

Throughout the next few weeks at school, Mei and Yuzu hardly had a moment to hang out together, at least up until the Friday when they were due to meet up with the Careers advisor again.

Previously Mei wouldn't have much been bothered by this - she had loved Yuzu for a while, but that hadn't meant they needed to spend time openly together at school. Her slow pace in that regard had upset Yuzu a few weeks ago, before they'd taken things physically to the next level, Yuzu feeling pressurised by the lack of visible progress and the comments of her friends, whilst Mei was feeling the scrutiny of her council members and unable to act in a way not keeping with her expected demeanour. It had taken a while to work out why Yuzu was upset, and how to make it up to her. Just little things had made a difference but that had been hard to see.

Since they'd consummated their relationship and more since Mei had called out Tanaka when she'd tried to paint their relationship as a bad thing, her take on this had changed. She understood what it meant to Yuzu for their interactions to be public, not something to hide away, and after all that had happened since felt far safer with her fiance present. Having to see her predominantly in the evenings only meant she'd missed Yuzu, her hand lonely and her mind shocked at how much her opinions and her feelings had changed. They had the evenings together, though they were packed with schoolwork, wedding prep and the new task of searching for information about Mei's mother (no luck so far, though Papa and Grandfather were searching their contacts), but it wasn't the same as that public acknowledgment of love.

_I guess that's half of the appeal of marriage, that openness with the world about who you love, alongside the practicalities._

She knew if she was missing Yuzu then the other girl would be desperate to spend time together at school, certainly she'd been frisky enough at home at night. Mei had refused to have proper sex during the week though, things were intense and they needed rest. Plus she was wanted Yuzu completely pent up for when she did something very naughty and fulfilled one of her fiance's fantasies.

Secretly, without the general population of the school knowing, with Himeko's help, Mei had arranged for the rest of the school council to be arranging and preparing for a school trip and lecture series in an external venue the next week. The teachers had an important staff bonding dinner that not many students would be aware of, and the school's baseball, soccer and kendo teams were all playing away. As it was Friday, there would also be no band practice.

Now she just needed an non-obvious way to keep Yuzu staying behind after lessons finished for a bit. Mei could come up with an excuse for staying late with ease.

Whilst she tried to think of a way to set things up, trusting that Himeko, the only one she had involved in her plan, would keep the rest of the student council out of the grounds whilst she "finished paperwork", the Friday was very socially demanding, sapping Mei's emotional energy in a way that probably only Himeko and Yuzu would be able to notice. She DID genuinely have a lot of presidential work to do, and a perfect grade score to keep, plus council members kept pestering her for her birthday plans. She wanted to do something quiet with her few friends, and especially Yuzu, but there was some pressure to turn this into a social event, something that frankly gave her a twinge of panic. It was only a week away, as well, and she had so many other things to focus on. As she became tired, Himeko noticed and started batting away the clearly unwelcome attention. Gratitude for her friend building up, she suddenly had an idea.  
But she and Yuzu had their joint careers meeting in mere minutes. She had to message her plan on the run to Himeko, praying that the other girl would be game.

Yuzu was glowing throughout it, being with Mei and talking about their future together, that giddy enthusiasm people took for immaturity, an optimism that only really existed for Mei through her. She took Yuzu's hand, melting inside as Yuzu beamed.

_She really doesn't want much. And I love her so much, I never want her to be in doubt of that. I want her to be happy._

Nakamura-San led into a number of options she had found, with courses that matched up well in Osaka and Kyoto (as well as America and even London), but she also thought that with continued hard work Yuzu could get into the University of Tokyo and they could live together in a little flat near there. As she went through everything they'd have to do to be likely to be accepted, it sounded daunting. But Yuzu knew that Mei had wanted to go to Japan's most prestigious University and looked utterly determined to join her there. She had a printout of her latest grades, and currently, with sheer effort and a little help changing her approach to learning from Mei, she looked on track.

Her hope and self-esteem, hugely improved since they had first met and first gone out, was a beautiful thing to behold, and made her physically wonderful to look at. As well as having a pure, kind heart and a stubborn ability to fight, she had grown more and more beautiful as she got happier in her own skin. Enough that it was a physical effort these days for Mei to not pull her aside and kiss her every time they passed at school. She had always been hard to resist, her innocent beauty alluring from the moment she had seen her as a pretty idiot in class, but as she realised she loved Yuzu, realised her depth, it had taken more and more of her willpower to stay decorous. That was one reason why saying she loved her in public, holding her hand at school was hard: as in all things, Mei had to set herself strict rules and walls or she'd lose all restraint.

They left that meeting, full of hope, things so much better than two days ago when that assault and thoughts of her mother had left Mei scarred. As long as they were together, they would win.

But first, the short game.

She surreptitiously checked her phone. Himeko would help. She was a saint.

"Hey Yuzu, I need to stay late-ish tonight, helping with the trip and conference next week, so I'll see you later, ok? I'll be at the activities centre we are booking for the lectures"

She took the sting of disappointment in her beloved's face as a short-term hurt that she knew she would make up for later, and waved her goodbye, heading to the finals classes of the week, including gym, where she distracted herself from some of her sexual frustration on the badminton court, and then her office whilst making sure that everyone had cleared out, hurrying anyone she saw away.

Then she messaged Himeko. " **It's time** ".

And headed downstairs to just outside the changing rooms.

Himeko would message Yuzu, saying that she was stuck busy preparing for the trip to Mt Fuji next week, but Mei was with her and couldn't find her phone. She thought she probably left it in the dressing room after gym class. **Could you please go and collect it, then you can spend time with her here helping us if you like?**

Himeko's text to Mei: **She sounds grumpy but she said ok.**

So Mei waited, flicking through a book as she did.  
She knew they could get into a lot of trouble here, but if it had the effect she expected on Yuzu it would be worth the risk, and she had a lot of credit to protect them in case anything did go wrong.

Half an hour later, Yuzu, quite loudly, entered the building. Mei remained as quiet as she could, phone on silent next to her on a bench, waiting as Yuzu called it, grumbling about her aborted shopping trip, and moved through the rooms, closer and closer, once she was in the changing room tracking down the sound of Mei's phone vibrating on the hard surface.

Until she found the right spot, phone vibrating on the bench, and gave out an adorable squeak of satisfaction. She picked it up, and prepared to turn around, when Mei stepped out from the shower she was now hidden in.

"I love you." She said these words, words Yuzu always longed to hear, as she wrapped around her love from behind, breathing at her ear. She felt Yuzu tense up and then almost immediately melt into her arms. The other girl had changed at home into a cotton chemise and denim jeans, looking just as alluring in casual attire as her uniform. She'd look even better naked and smeared with Mei.

"Mei... You tricked me..."

"I'm sorry, I did. But now we are here. All alone... If you want we can stop, go home. But otherwise, I'm going to make your fantasy come true."

"Oh, wow"

"First I'm going to kiss you here at school"

She did, a sisterly kiss on the cheek at first, then followed by a salvo of increasing passion, starting on the mouth but drifting to her throat by the end, as she span Yuzu to face her.

"And hold your hand, like you said you wanted..."

Yuzu's hand was hot. Mei rubbed it for a moment before placing it on her own breast suggestively.

"And then I'm going to reward you for being the world's most amazing, patient girlfriend. I can't really be as passionate as you would like in front of everyone. But I can fuck so you hard now, so sweetly, that everyone who sees you for the next day will know that I've fucked you. I'll make you permanently wet so that any passing student can smell the lust on you through your pants. When they hear your voice they'll hear the hoarse throat from you feasting on my delicious pussy and smell me on your breath, smeared over your lips. How does that sound?"

She knew she was being over the top, but the tabboo thoughts of making love in their empty school had made Mei as horny as she could remember being, and the excitement in Yuzu's eyes said that she was lapping this up. Mei was already soaked, already stripping her betrothed in her minds eye.

Yuzu was panting slightly at her words, bright pink in the face, looking like she'd erupt if Mei touched her.

"I need to know if you're ok with this. Will you give yourself to me, mark this room as ours with your sweat and your honey?"

"I'm always yours, the thought of this has pretty much gotten me halfway to the end! But please don't ask any more. I want you to take me, as if you were seducing me for the first time. I consent to it all."

That was all she needed to hear. She turned Yuzu around again, roughly, and started massaging her breasts slowly, first though her shirt and then slipping beneath her bra, the skin burning to her touch and nipples protruding like they had been carved of some volcanic stone, fresh from the molten earth. She started not quite gently, but without real force, and whispered "there's nobody here, Yuzu-Chan, so I want you to be noisy".

On demand, Yuzu started to moan, as Mei kissed her neck and her ear lobe from behind, snaking one hand down her clothes and rubbing over her jeans-covered crotch, rubbing for a while and feeling all tension dissolve from her entire body, completely receptive and passive beneath her expert hands.

"Oh, Yuzu, you don't know how long I've wanted to make your little new-girl lips moan my name, make you realise you're entirely gay. Now we are all alone and you are mine, sister or not." She figured this was the kind of roleplay, from before they knew and loved each other, that Yuzu was asking for, and her lover confirmed this with urging cries.

"Oh, President Aihara, this is so wrong. But I've never felt this good, what are you doing to me?"

As they played along with their dialogue, Yuzu making no pretense of resistance but continuing to act the Ingénue, groaning that she must be gay, that she needed to be taught her true self, Mei started to strip her.

_If I'd known she'd want the playacting like this, I'd have tried to find a way to keep her in her uniform!_

Nimble fingers undid the buttons of her top in-between coy strokes and possessive pinches, murmuring in Yuzu's ear the entire time how she could barely resist her at school (fitting for both Mei now but also the old self she was being asked to act) whilst her other hand moved to Yuzu's mouth for her to suck on the fingers there. She then popped open the button of her jeans and pushed then a little down Yuzu's hips and delicately floated down to the undergarment there. Wet.

"Naughty girl, so wet already. I bet you want me to touch you now?"

"Oh, president Aihara, please, I need it!"

"The trouble is you're such a naughty girl. Only good girls get rewards."

Yuzu's tone was imploring, needy. "I'll be a good girl! I'll obey your every command."

"Ok, but once I make you mine, I get to take you home to serve me all weekend..."

She slipped her finger underneath the cotton panties, ignoring her prominent clit for now and eased it into her slippery hole, gliding up and down for a minute with her finger crooked, then removed it to sad whining.

"Good girls make me come first."

She peeled off the rest of Yuzu's unbuttoned shirt and her jeans, and her bra followed, leaving her looking vulnerable and subservient in panties alone. Yuzu immediately sank to her knees, eyes up and shining, and Mei stepped over and put her head under her skirt.

"Pull my underwear down." Her lover complied, and given her gasp, must have seen or smelt something she liked. Mei knew how much of a state she has been in thinking of this all day, and how soaked their play so far had made her, so she assumed there must be quite a pungeunt aroma with the skirt keeping everything in. Yuzu waited, obedient, until Mei commanded her to lick. Which she then did with abandon.

Mei urged her on with little cries, calling her a good girl, as she massaged herself and stripped her own clothing off, eventually including the skirt, giving her a wonderful view of the most attractive girl she had ever seen delving into her pussy. It put her nearly over the edge, so, knowing Yuzu would love it, she pushed her back onto the bench, now sitting with her back against the wall, hiked up so her legs were hooked on her shoulders, and rode her face hard and sloppily until she came, writhing over Yuzu's mouth and, as she had promised, smearing herself all over her.

Now it was her turn.

She grabbed off Yuzu's underwear, balled it up and put it with her own in her bag (they couldn't afford to be forgetful and leave evidence) and then ministered to her entire body with her fingers and mouth, amazed even for Yuzu how quickly she came. She dragged Yuzu by her hand, both utterly naked but (she wasn't an idiot) clothes all in her bag, out of the changing room and into a classroom. Using the bag as a cushion for Yuzu's tummy, she then bent her over a desk top, pulling a small dildo from her pencil case. Strapping it on, she then inserted inside her love, grinding and rolling at first, making her squeal for more, before she built up to a steady rhythm, smacking her backside as Yuzu lost control beneath her.

They did it again, this time face to face with Yuzu straddling her, Mei pinching her nipples hard as she made incoherent sounds, bucking up and down on her, making a love-bite on her upper breast where only they would see it. Finally, she let Yuzu take the toy and fuck her, but with Mei still in control, riding her cowgirl style and finishing as she orgasmed again by scratching her precious girlfriend's back.

Then very carefully, she handed back their clothes, except both sets of underwear. "From now on, you don't wear underwear on Fridays, Yuzu, just in case. Besides, you can't wear these again. Smell them." Yuzu almost fainted, not because of any unpleasant smell - in fact, Mei was sure the raw, distilled sex smell was as erotic for Yuzu as for her, inherently associated with the incredible sexual escapade they had just shared, evoking those very recent memories- but from the sheer concupiscence of the act, from the desires that aroma brought forward and the excitement and embarrassment surrounding them. Obedient, she wore her jeans commando, the panties in Mei's bag as a trophy. Mei then meticulously cleaned every surface they'd been on, leaving no sign of their transgression, double-checking she hadn't left a single clue or item behind in either room.

"Shouldn't we shower, Mei? We could do it together..."

She shook her head.

"Not here, we can take our time at home, and I'll be nice and gentle with you where I've been a bit rough now, kiss it all better. Besides, I promised you that people passing you on the street would know that I'd fucked you, you need to smell of sex and you need to smell of me." A mixture of concern and aroused interest flitted and fought over Yuzu's features. Mei patted her in reassurance. "Don't worry, I promise not to let anyone we know near you, or to let Mama sniff us before wash. We can say we played tennis, or something, and need a shower straight away."

Just before they left, she had one last surprise, remembering a scene from a couple of months ago where they'd shared an elevator and Yuzu had run out upset at the end. To seal off this absolution of sorts, as they took the elevator to the main hall, Mei checked for cameras (there were none, thankfully), then hit every button on the way down. As Yuzu exclaimed, asking what she was doing, Mei pinned her against the doors and slipped a hand into her trousers, straight to her unprotected vulva, still gloriously wet, Yuzu's body subconsciously submitting to Mei's statement that she would be. She estimated they had a minute or two at most, but Yuzu was sopping and still exceedingly receptive and Mei was driven with a furious passion, a need to make her come once more. With a blurring flurry of fingers and an endless kiss, she sped further and further as the juddering journey continued, as Yuzu squirmed and just as the doors opened for the final time she felt Yuzu squirt all over her fingers and the jeans, a rare occurrence for either of them. She licked her hand clean.

"Ok. Now it's time to go. I promise we'll spread out our time and affection together at school next week, but consider that a back payment."


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sex scene again as a short chapter next chapter

"Elsa... *Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock* Do you want to build a snowman?"

Groaning internally, unused to waking at this hour but unable to vocalise this lest she woke up the light-sleeping beauty beside her, Yuzu pulled out the earphones she'd gone to sleep with for this very purpose, to keep this most necessary alarm for her ears only, and fumbled at the off button on her phone screen. After a moment of silent dissent, she furtively slipped out of bed, pausing and holding her breath as she glanced back to ensure she hadn't fallen at the first hurdle.

Mei was still sound asleep, arms locked around Kumagoro, her teddy bear, where Yuzu had painstakingly swapped with herself as she'd snuck from between that wonderful, warm embrace.

It was 6:00 am and she'd left herself plenty of time to prepare things. She could waste a minute staring at the beautiful women she was leaving in bed, a sight and warmth that she could still barely believe she got to wake up to everyday.

_Well, technically usually I don't wake up to it. Mei is always up first. Hence the alarm today._

Mei was genuinely, and not just through eyes tinted by love, the most perfect being she had ever seen. Absolutely calm in slumber, face emotionless in rest and innocence rather than a mask, cuddling her toy like a child. She could simultaneously have all the hidden joy and different thought processes of a child whilst the razor intellect and complex emotions of the most difficult adult imaginable. Clever but silent, beautiful but insecure, aloof and charismatic but introspective and confused inside, it had been a privilege to get to know the real her, the way she had to mute her emotions and block others' because otherwise she experienced them so strongly. She loved her, and hoped she would enjoy this for ever.

As well as the intellectual response, the bliss she experienced looking at her love sleep, Yuzu couldn't help but feel a physical stir. That flawless body, one that could only have been designed by a gay, female god, was covered in loose Western pyjamas, draped in soft sheets, but Yuzu still felt like a lucky mortal adventurer coming across a sleeping virgin goddess or a love spirit, otherworldly beauty and, though cloaked right now, undisguisable sex appeal: round full breasts clinging even to the loose cotton top, the swell of a sculpted arsecheek poking from under the blanket and the smell of Mei filling the room.

They hadn't made love last night, both tired after a long week of planning, school and searching for the long lost (first) Mrs Aihara, but the weekend before, starting with the pant-ruiningly sensual suprise Mei had given her at school at the end of the week last Friday, had been relentless but invigorating, locked in the chaste joys of planning a celebration of their eternal love and sharing that with Mama, interspersed with physical sessions at morning, night and whenever Mama left the house, that had left a seemingly permanent echo of Yuzu moaning Mei's name. They'd both been so horny they couldn't keep their hands off each other for any time unsupervised, and though the raw need for it had melted, neither had grown remotely tired or bored of the other's body, and a more open passion between them was now the norm even at school, Mei daring anyone to comment with her eyes. Within propriety of course. Just hand-holding and frank affection, with deep kisses each night and breakfast.

None of their friends would have the slightest idea of how filthy Mei could be, had been last week in the changing room, underneath her decorum in public. The ability to be as sweet or as dirty as Yuzu needed added an extra dimension to their sexual relationship.

She planned to enjoy each once again a bit more actively this birthday weekend. But first, today, the actual birthday.

  
The mission started with ensuring her first present and card for Mei were safe and then put them on the table where they'd be obvious, with the carefully hidden bouquet of Lilies, Azaleas and Yuzu flowers, procured after school yesterday. She then double-checked   
the bookings for the required establishments to make sure the whole weekend was ready to go, satisfied that things looked perfect, and checking in with their friends to make sure they were ready for their parts today and tomorrow, and with the council to make sure every one of Mei's duties was covered by someone else. Since her hard start as an uncouth outsider, she had won over much of the school society with her charm and enthusiasm, and due to their respect for Mei, so by calling in favours as well she had managed to clear the entire weekend for the President without as much stress as she had expected.  
  
She proceeded by cooking Mei's favourite breakfast, a mix of traditional Japanese with miso soup and green salad, but supplemented with a dish Mei had adored when they'd tasted it in London -Eggs Benedict. She finished it up with a fresh pancake each, served with juice and tea, all served hot just as, as expected, Mei came down the stairs at 7:05, much calmer than the last time Yuzu had left her alone in bed, looking perfectly composed in her full uniform, clean smell of the floral shower gel she used battling with the rich aroma of the meal Yuzu had prepared.

She smiled, the faint surprise on Mei's face endearing. "Happy birthday, Mei-Chan! I made you breakfast!"  
Mama came down to join them, enticed by the smell of hot pancakes, and, Mei looking touched by the display of affection, they had a lovely breakfast all together, before Yuzu rushed upstairs to change for school as Ume washed up, and Mei prepared for the day.

They had time before they left, arriving together as they had started to do (Yuzu having to leave earlier than previously due to Mei's pre-class duties, but it was worth it), to open one of Mei's gifts from each of them. Mama had bought her a stylish leather satchel, to carry her things for school and university, now being 19 and focussing on the future. Yuzu's was a little card she had disguised in a much larger box.

"It's a card for self-defence classes for the next year. Their times should easily fit into your schedule, I thought we could do them as an activity together, they are exercise and they are practical! Plus, I know how much that creep the other week shook you up, and this way we can make sure nobody ever makes you feel like that again."

Tears welled in Mei's eyes.

_Oh no, I've gone too far and reminded her of some traumatic stuff. I should have thought more about how this would make her feel..._

But any guilt she was feeling was wiped out when Mei, crying and whispering "Thank you, Onee-Chan", hugged her as tight as she ever had, squeezing the air out of her.

Once Mei had settled down, she gave a smile that lit the morning sky. "This is the most thoughtful present anyone has ever given me." Her voice dropped lower and quieter so that Mama wouldn't overhear as she prepared in the next room. "If we didn't have to hurry to school, I'd want to show you how good you are to me, by doing scandalous things to you in our room..."

Yuzu smouldered back. "Don't worry. That's your birthday treat for later." As they walked out the door, Mei admiring the flowers as they went, Yuzu even made her stumble with the last word. "And remember, it's a Friday, so I'm not wearing underpants," A slight flounder, that followed up into a full on trip when she completed, "but I am wearing my little 'rabbit tail', keeping me ready for you and thinking of you all day."

The rest of the day went as planned as well, although Yuzu had to be exceedingly careful - she had been utterly sincere with Mei, thankful that the class schedule didn't include sport today but still making sure she didn't give anyone any view of her skirt when she changed position (her panties would have been embarrassing enough, her naked vulva even worse, but she spent most of the day with a damp vulva and a rabbit tail butt-plug, which would be mortifying to be caught with.) and had to sit with caution.

Himeko, Matsuri, Harumin, even Sayaka and Miyabi all wished Mei a happy birthday, and Himeko, as requested, had brought a cake that she, Mei, Yuzu, Matsuri and Harumin shared. After school, Mei found that all her tasks had been taken up by other Council members, actually shocking her, and she received presents from their friendship group, all opened in the park on the way to their next destination: Himeko, sweetly, some clothes that she knew Mei would like (and which were very flattering - Yuzu would like see her in them as well) and a book on business to help get her set for University; Sara and Nino wouldn't be here today, but were meeting them for the next day (not that Mei knew about it yet, other than "to keep your weekend free") and would bring theirs then; Harumin, cheekily, had bought, after discussing sizes with Yuzu, the only person who would know for sure, some frankly very sexy lingerie, with a wink and a request to give Yuzu a close look later than night; and finally Matsuri who probably DID overstep the boundaries of taste and bought her a very graphic "pillow book" to "try out".

That last one drew giggles all around, along with a deathglare from Mei herself, but Yuzu noticed (amused and aroused) that she put the pillow book away with the other presents as well.

Yuzu was intentionally saving her second (well, third if she included her obedient body later on) gift until after dinner.

They walked through the park and ended up where they needed to be for their next activity. The Ghibli museum, which they drank in with reverence at the beautiful history of anime before them, Yuzu inspired because Miyazaki films were one of the things she and Mei loved to watch with each other. Then came the spa and massage, a shortened evening package but still divine, partly due to the healing waters and energising warmth, partly the incredible massage they all received, but also because it meant seeing Mei in just a towel, sweaty all over, which was a religious experience for Yuzu even now. Of course, she'd had to pop out her tail for this bit, after making sure Mei had glimpsed it, incase the masseuse thought she was a pervert.

Completely relaxed, they entered the final phase of tonight. Self-cooking Teriyaki, with cooking lessons and top notch ingredients. Mama and Papa joined for that as well, to surprise and delight Mei, and Yuzu finished by feeding her fiancee directly from her chopsticks.

With the family there, they finished up the night with Yuzu's final present. With all eyes on her, she began to feel a little nervous.

_What if she doesn't like it?_

She held her breath and watched Mei peel open an envelope, and gasp, a rare burst of unrestraint. For the second time that day, her eyes had the sheen of joyful tears, as she kissed Yuzu, just once, in front of everyone, before showing them all what they already knew the envelope contained: tickets for each of them (plus for the Tachibana sisters) for Disneyland Tokyo.

 

It was going to be an awesome weekend for them all.

 

_But first, Mei's other present..._


	24. Chapter 24

They got home and practically slammed the door. Mama and Shou had, after an implicit request from Yuzu, stayed out to meet old friends, understanding that the girls would want some time alone and that they probably would feel more comfortable not being in the house when that happened.

From the instant Yuzu closed the door behind them, Mei had latched onto her from behind, grinding her crotch against Yuzu's rear, with the tail there sending sparks of pleasure up her back. Yuzu felt her pulse race as Mei started to kiss her from over her shoulder, licking at her neck and hands linked underneath her breasts. To show her eagerness, she pushed her bum back into Mei, meeting her gyrating hips, and moved Mei's hands up, each one taking a breast over her shirt. Emboldened, Mei took them away, making Yuzu moan in dismay, before sliding them underneath her top, and pinning them to her breasts with her still fastened bra.

"You've been so amazing to me, my thoughtful little Yuzu. What do you want me to do?"

"Oh Mei, I'm your gift, you can do what you want!"

Mei murmured in her ear in reply, "But what I want to do first of all is attend to you. I love you so much. Tell me what you want, I'll take control again later..."

Now she was kneading Yuzu's breasts, coolness of her hands fuelling their sensitivity, and Yuzu could feel her excitement growing. Mei pushed her over so that she was bend forward, Mei still groping her boobs and grinding at her bottom, Yuzu supporting them with both arms outstretched and against the kitchen counter. Whilst waiting for Yuzu to answer, she angled to part Yuzu's legs with her thigh, now stimulating her down below with slight movements. Yuzu knew that Mei would feel her sticky dampness leaking from her bare pussy onto her leg.

"I want you to make me come, then, if it's ok, I want to worship your pussy and fuck you with your strap-on, make you feel like a loved princess. Then I want to submit utterly to you, until you are done with me..."

"Your wish is my gift. Now come my little Yuzu."

Leaving her dressed, she moved one hand off Yuzu's bosum, the other rolling the nipple there constantly, and, stroking the tail on her way down, shoved it up Yuzu's skirt and straight into her dripping vagina, two fingers there and thumb over her clit, pumping hard from the very start and battering her senses. As Yuzu accelerated to her limit, Mei put her hand still under her bra over her mouth and covered it, smothering an enormous scream and Yuzu came hard, completely helpless as she supported their position. Mei licked her fingers clean.

"Now bunny, I'm going to get dressed into Harumin's gift, and when I'm back, you can do with my body whatever you want, until I come twice, and then you're my little pet again. Ok?"

Nods as unbridled lust filled her to the brim.

"Just so you know, we might try some new things later."

Mei started to striptease in front of Yuzu, letting her glimpse, with a faux attempt to cover her private areas, her hard nipples, the shine at her upper thighs where her excitement had leaked. As she prepared the lingerie to slip into, she threw her underwear at Yuzu.

"Before I give up charge for the next while, sniff that. That's what you do to me."

There was a huge wet patch on them, smelling of concentrated Mei, nearly enough to make Yuzu come again straight away.

She distracted herself by undressing, taking the dildo from Mei's drawer upstairs and returning, enjoying the stunned look on Mei's face as she stared at her wearing just a bunny tail butt-plug, their beautiful little strap-on and some bunny ears she'd kept to complete the kit. No clothes, and she loved the way Mei couldn't physically stop looking at her breasts.

Mei in return was utterly ravishing. The lacy, gorgeous lingerie Harumin had picked suited her to a tee, violet, emphasising her perfect bosum, drawing the eye to the delicious prize between her legs.

_It's a shame they'll need to come off AND need washing so soon._

Yuzu closed the gap between them and initiated their kiss, taking charge as requested for now. Forcefully, she pushed Mei through to the sitting room, grabbing a towel on the way which she laid down on the sofa, then pushed Mei onto it.

She straddled her, kissing her as hard and fast as she wished she always could, toying with her hair, and then paid attention to one of her favourite erogenous zones, her ear lobes, making Mei mewl and squirm. Her sister was already deeply into it, feeling Yuzu's artificial hard-on at her belly, and wetness on her lap from Yuzu's still soaked folds. Her legs were wide apart, an invitation for Yuzu to take her whenever she desired.

First she relieved her off that beautiful new bra, and made love to her nipples with her mouth.

"Mei, you made me feel so hot moaning so loud at school last week. The house is empty. I want you to moan loudly for me. Hold nothing back."

Accompanied by the unrestrained groans and exhortations that her lover now began in earnest, Yuzu worked her way down to the gorgeous underwear, already scented with Mei's need to have Yuzu between her thighs. She slunk down off the sofa to be in that position, teasingly pulling the panties off her, before kissing and sucking on her toes, each in turn, tantalisingly working up one leg until, each kiss sooner than the last, each moan from Mei closer together, she suddenly engulfed Mei's throbbing button, surrounding it with her hot mouth and lapping away with aggression. She then put her fingers inside her, rubbing out a beat until she exploded, delicious juices running down Yuzu's face as she shoved it right into Mei's cleft.

"Now, Mei-Chan, I'm going to fuck you."

Yuzu loved being submissive to Mei. It turned her on, it made her feel loved, and it was important to always let Mei feel safe. She wouldn't want to change their usual balance for the world. But the thought of how much Mei was trusting her by letting her take charge now, that was amazing. And the thought of dominating her for a while drove her wild.

Soon she had Mei supported on the couch, pulling both her own legs up to give Yuzu complete access to her, as Yuzu thrust in and out of her, face to face as Mei relinquished any concealment and groaned out her pleasure, pleading Yuzu to take her harder and faster.

Mei was almost there, bucking with Yuzu on every thrust, so Yuzu resisted her own barely surmountable urge to finish her off and slowed down, to sad whines. Then, slick from the nectar coating them both, she stuck her finger up her arse, played there for a while as Mei got worked up in a different way. Yuzu then stuck her tongue right up the hot, tight hole she had just loosened up, building Mei up right to the edge again, before pulling out and ordering her to turn over.

_This was it._

They'd had plenty of sex before, and Yuzu had been inside Mei with their dildo on several occasions. But usually cowgirl, Mei still the lead, or possibly missionary. Fucking her in a dominant position, like doggy-style, was entirely new and Yuzu was nervous.

Mei seemed ready to go, though, certainly compliant, on her knees with her legs apart.

"You can pull my hair a bit if you like, Yuzu Blossom."

Desire and Mei's clear interest in the switch overcoming anxiety, she lined herself up. And took Mei hard.

There was no resistance, the passage wet and ready and Mei pushing back to receive each drive and crying out Yuzu's name, at normal volume at first but before long, as Yuzu increased her pace and lightly tugged Mei's hair, it became howling.

Mei met Yuzu's rhythm and their motions combined as a beautiful dance to the music of Mei's squeals and Yuzu's cadenced mantra in her ears "Come for me, Mei, come for me", the entire ballet of bodies erupting into glorious climax as Mei shuddered and spasmed beneath her, Yuzu slowing each push now, every one accompanied by a sloshing down as Mei's vagina became a waterslide.

They rested for a while, before Mei, smiling at her, beckoned Yuzu upstairs to bed.

"I really liked submitting to you there, Yuzu Blossom, but now you're all mine again."

And she was, surrendering her body for the rest of the night, whimpering and shouting as Mei ate out her pussy then her anus, winking half-open after the long preparation from the tail. She tied Yuzu up, and fucked her from behind with fierce aggression, squeezing her breast as she made her come again. She made slow love face to face, grinding the dildo into her as she gazed into her eyes and gave her hickeys over her neck. She overlapped their legs, laying their sweaty, gaping girl-flowers on top of each other and tried the "scissoring" chapter from Matsuri's pillow book, a strange sensation that brought Yuzu to orgasm but wasn't her favourite. They then tried several other chapters, and finished up with Mei climaxing one last time with Yuzu buried between her legs as the latter touched herself to what seemed like the final flurry of one long orgasm.

They had to shower then, together but non-sexual, genuinely cleaning the other for bed with tenderness reserved for the other half of each of their hearts, and were fast asleep by the time their parents returned, wearing nothing but t-shirts in the cosy warmth of the covers and each other.

Yuzu's last thoughts as she drifted off were of how much she loved Mei, and how amazing the next day would be. What could be a more magical place for young love than Disney? What could go wrong?


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mei's birthday surprise gets a nice twist and then a bigger one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long! I've been busy again, and my wife has just had a baby, so my work may be more sporadic (periods of lots of writing and periods of little) for a bit. 
> 
> Also, I wanted to get this chapter right, for the set up and for the content itself.
> 
> Hope you like the cliffhanger!

Mei woke excited at the crack of dawn, even for her, pleasantly warm from Yuzu's arms around her, hands clasped underneath her breasts, pelvis forming a perfect mould for her backside. 

 

Usually she'd let Yuzu sleep a bit more, slide out of bed without waking her and observe her peaceful, resting beauty as she slumbered before starting her morning routine, but today they both had to get up and ready for the amazing present that Yuzu had organised for her. If they wanted to get the most from their day at Disney, they'd have to leave soon.

 

_ I'll just give her a few minutes more though. _

 

Carefully, she turned Yuzu over and took over as Big Spoon, enjoying the heat from her back, and  slowly started to massage her shoulders until moaning she started to stir. "Mmmm, that's so good, Mei." They had time before they'd need to jump in the shower, so Mei decided she really wanted to wake Yuzu up properly. After whispering to check it was ok, she slipped one hand over Yuzu's nipple and the other between her legs, and stroked her to a rapid orgasm, shuddering back into her own gyrating pelvis. After a moment of lying there and enjoying the wonderful floppiness of her sated lover, she then got up, throwing her clothes off shamelessly and dragged Yuzu with her to shower the bed-sweat and lady-juice off both of them.

 

Dressing swiftly, and brazenly (with no shame whatsoever, Mei had decided to wear her Elsa top, with Yuzu wearing her Anna one, each bought for one by the other from the Disney store in their trip to London. They were going to Disney and they were damn well going to look the part, as far as Mei was concerned), into their gear for the day, they both hurried downstairs, where Mama and Papa had just pulled themselves up for breakfast and a family journey.

 

Nobody at school, aside from Himeko, and of course Yuzu if she counted, had known how much Mei, for all her seriousness and studiousness, loved all things Disney. The friends who had come to her birthday party yesterday, and who would be joining today as well, probably had a pretty good idea now, watching her cry with happiness when she had discovered this final part of her present. A part of Mei, with her different mind and experiences that had forced her to partially grow up very early, had an inherent attraction to childlike comforts, and had latched onto the films and universe of Walt Disney, as well as that of Miyazaki Hayao, early and hadn't let go. Since then she had come up with more sophisticated enjoyment of what she saw but her love was still emotional and innate. It was the same feeling that drew her to cute animals and teddy bears alongside her drive to succeed and Japanese Literature. This journey was essentially the Holy Grail for her.  

 

They had, in true American style, a pancake breakfast and Papa drove them all together in the car to get to the hallowed gates of Disney Tokyo just as the park was opening. 

 

They waited while the rest of the troupe gathered there, with Nina and Sara joining the gang of Matsuri, Himeko and Harumin from the day before. Once they had all arrived, Matsuri and Harumin last together, they entered. 

 

The day flew by, with various splitting up of different groups, a drive to visit every ride in the park, interacting with characters in costume that, despite Mei's aura of maturity, thrilled her to the core, eating American style food and generally exulting in the company of friends around them. Matsuri and disappeared suspiciously for a while, returning disheveled, but despite their own kinks and newfound adventurousness, Mei and Yuzu had no desire to follow their lead and fool around on any rides beyond hand holding and kissing. Besides, as part of the gift, they were spending a night, just the two of them, in a resort hotel before getting an extra day at the park tomorrow. They'd have plenty of time for fun there.

 

Inbetween rides, Mei had the chance, and having gotten to know this bunch of once strangers well, mostly through Yuzu, this past year, the inclination to catch up with how everyone's lives were going. The lives themselves weren't that interesting on the whole, with everyone preparing to finish school, Harumin feeling pressure to live up to her sister at college etc. But the love lives had progressed in interesting ways. As Yuzu had suspected and hinted at for some time, Matsuri and Harumin were an item, and seemingly had accelerated through the physical part of their relationship much faster than Mei and Yuzu had (for myriad good reasons). Himeko was starting to get close to Suzaran Shiraho, an older girl who had once been obsessed with Mei in a slightly less cute way than Hime-chan but had learnt from Yuzu in summer camp how to accept the way things had to be. Given their similar interactions with her, Mei thought something deeper than a friendship between them was possible but sensibly her oldest friend was keeping things slow. Nina didn't have a girlfriend as of yet, but had a crush on a girl in her class, and Sara had started dating someone recently, which made Mei very happy. She was one of the sweetest people Mei had met, and one of the hardest things about accepting her own feelings for Yuzu had been the knowledge that Sara might be caught up as collateral. Between herself and Yuzu, they had collected up a number of admirers over the last year or so, but things seemed to have reached a happy equilibrium. 

 

They chatted some more about mutual friends - Yuzu had gotten back in touch with her old schoolmates, the Nakano sisters, since they had bumped into the quintuplets at the beach. Mei guessed she'd probably be getting to know them a lot better soon - from her brief interaction with them she had been impressed by their sisterly love and resolve. Harumin talked about how her sister was getting on at college, and they talked about what universities they all planned to apply for, which put Mei in mind of her plans with Yuzu. It wasn't far off that they would hopefully be living alone together, free from the constraints of traditional Japanese school and into the relative liberty of University. It honestly excited her. 

 

Soon, after finishing the main part of the day with a shared meal at the Blue Bayou restaurant, more shared anecdotes and watching the evening parade and lightshow, the others (including their parents) said their farewells and left.

 

Mei and Yuzu spent the rest of the evening huddled together in their top class hotel room. Sadly, being in Japan, they were constrained by the legal drinking age, which they were both a while off, and the room service wouldn't make an exception to bring them champagne, but they were delivered elderberry and lemon flavoured mocktails as an alternative, as well as some indulgent dessert. Mochi, but also chocolate cake and mousse. On Sunday, they planned to revisit their favourite bits of Disneyland rather than to rush the second park (Disney Sea), and to see the World Bazaar amongst other things, as well as a show in the afternoon, after a pre-booked fancy lunch in the hotel. That meant they could have a much later wake-up and thus later bedtime, so they had a long night to spend as they wished.

 

They started by watching movies, Disney of course, lounged together on the enormous bed they were sharing. Luckily the resort hadn't thought twice about two teenagers with the same sex and surname sharing a bed, presumably believing two sisters (and how were they to know what kind of sisters they were?) would bed share for more chaste reasons than Mei had planned in her mind's eye. It started innocently enough, of course.

 

"What do you want to start with, Yuzu-Chan?"

 

Frozen, the original, it turned out, playing on their shirts and the whole sisterhood idea. It was as good as Mei remembered, if a little cheesy, improved by Yuzu's mostly tuneful singing along, helping build some excitement for the sequel that was coming out soon. It was followed by popcorn, then Mulan, one of Mei's favourites before they went for a walk under the cool sky, looking at the lights of the park from their hotel balcony, and finishing the film fest with Mei's personal favourite, Tangled.

 

Nobody apart from Himeko, and now Yuzu, knew that. She didn't talk about the things she loved very often.  _ Maybe it's time I started to change that? _ Yuzu certainly seemed to enjoy hearing her talk about her interests, and even where they didn't interest her personally, she loved to hear about Yuzu's, feel the passion in the voice and the light in her eyes. Himeko did know, however, because uncharacteristically, as she was starting to come to terms with the fact that she preferred girls to men, she had confided in her, her only friend. It had been a confusing time in her life, at the start of pubescence, but Mei guessed that frankly every period of her life had been confusing in its own way. At least her current one felt safe and was lit up by Yuzu. Maybe life was just confusing.

 

Discovering she was gay, or mostly gay, had been traumatic though. She had realised that she would be asked to marry for her family and that it would be seen as improper, and there were so few places she could turn to, it had taken her years to properly assimilate that part of her identity, so used she had become to masking who she was from everyone including herself. It was why she had found it easiest to be tender to Yuzu when she was freaking out about being lesbian and being judged in public for it, that was a feeling she could empathize with so deeply. She had confessed to Himeko though many years ago when they were talking about their crushes (Himeko luckily hadn't mentioned her, though Mei realised now that even back then she had probably had feelings for her - as much as she loved Himeko and as much as they were sexually compatible, she couldn't muster those kind of feelings for her then or now - they were destined to be best friends but nothing more, she didn't find a spark with her). Mei, after much contemplation and torture, had decided to come clean and admitted her first crush was Rapunzel from Tangled. Beautiful, kind, daring and testing herself, she had spoken straight into young Mei's heart and she had been very envious of Flynn Ryder. The movie was great in other respects too, but she still remembered the feeling of realising she fancied a princess rather than the Prince and this film would always be special to her. 

 

_ Probably one of the reasons I found myself physically attracted to Yuzu, or at least there are mutual traits that I found attractive in both. Fair hair, tallish, green eyes… plus she has the same bravery and attitude and kindness as well… _

 

They started the film together, Yuzu's head on Mei's lap as she stroked her hair, mirroring the film, but coming up to the emotional climax, the boat scene, she had to go to the toilet.

 

"Don't worry about pausing it, it's late. Just keep watching, I won't take long".

 

So Mei did, wondering whether she had gotten to when it took longer than a few minutes, half caught up in the magic unfolding on screen but half distracted by the fear that Yuzu would miss her favourite part of the film, the part that even she had cried to so many times, the duet See The Light.

 

The music started to play, and, unable to keep going without Yuzu there and getting worried, Mei got ready to pause until gentle hands touched her wrist and stopped her just as the first words were being sung. She turned to discover that Yuzu had snuck back in and was behind her on the bed.

 

Dressed in a perfect imitation of the princess on the screen, hair braided ( _ she must have done that with one of the girls earlier: how did I miss it? _ ) with flowers, one sunflower on the front, wearing a fitted slinky purple dress so perfect it must have been bought precisely as a Rapunzel costume. 

 

Mei gaped, heart and pussy throbbing as a fantasy she had never worded aloud came to life in front of her. 

 

"Himeko told me you'd like this," Of course she had. Mei could almost have kissed her friend, knowing how gutwrenching giving this advice, this method to woo Mei, must have been. "She told me you had a crush on Rapunzel, and I thought I could probably pull off the cosplay."

She had. As she'd mused earlier, Yuzu had all the features. 

 

"You're my light, shining, Mei, the one whose lifted my fog, made my sky blue, shifted my world. You've made my life different, the one who lets me know I'm where I'm meant to be."

 

_ Quoting the lyrics. Cheesy. But somehow, so, so hot.  _

 

"I wanted to be here for you, to fulfil one of your fantasies for once. And I will. Tonight, a Disney Princess is going to go down on you, taste every inch of you and them surrender herself, myself, completely to you. I'm going to beg you to fuck me, to moan your name like it's a sacred prayer, let you pull my long, magic hair and bind me with it. This dress is all I'm wearing, and it's a Halloween costume so you can cut it off me if you want. Now, we can watch the rest of the movie later, all wrapped naked together in a blanket as we recover."

 

With that, Yuzu turned off the the TV, and pushed Mei down onto the covers. "I'm gonna take charge just for this bit if it's ok?" Frantically, Mei nodded her consent, and Yuzu wasted no time. With intent clear on her face, she stripped off Mei's jeans and socks, and started to massage her feet, pressing so exquisitely that Mei felt her snatch clench slightly with easy slightly painful pressure. Then, locking eyes and refusing to break contact, she annointed Mei's feet with coconut oil, rubbing it in and wiping it off, before sensually sucking on each of her toes. After licking each one clean, she crawled her way up Mei's naked legs, massaging along tense muscles, stroking sensitive skin, working in warm oil and peppering random unsuspecting spots with hot kisses.

 

"Take your top off, Mei. Your princess commands it."

 

She did, feverishly, and Princess Yuzu snapped her bra off and flung it away smoothly, before throwing her back to the bed again, now rubbing the oil into her shoulders, her back, kissing her neck and cheek. 

 

"Tonight, Mei, you are going to come the second I touch your little clitty. I command it, you are going to be so hot for me that as soon as I touch you there you are going to explode, just like poor confused horny 13 year old Mei did watching a princess like this, completely unable to control your arousal. Then I'll lick you and poke you until you come again, all over, and then… I'll surrender to you completely, and be completely at your mercy, for the rest of tonight, the rest of our lives if you like. Do you want that?"

 

"Oh, gods, yes!"

 

Yuzu's attention was merciless, using her feet to stroke the insides of Mei's calves, the tops of her thighs, still lying in her panties which were stewing in her desire second by second. She kissed and licked every inch of her face and neck, nibbling her ear and lips. She kneaded oil into every inch of uncovered skin, pressing into knots, and worshipping her breasts, pinching the nipples and sucking them, slathering the areolas in oil, and working it in with responsive, obliging hands. Writhing as Yuzu teased her, blowing on her skin with balmy breath, Mei knew she really was getting close without her most private areas even being touched, gasping as burning lips latched onto her nipples, the curve on the bottom of her breasts, light tension on her hair, kisses that half-bit her lips, her whole body slippery and shiny with lotion and sweat. Finally Yuzu peeled, and it really was peeled, they were so sodden they acted like a second skin, the underwear from her, squeezing her arse and lathering it with the silky lubricant, kissing the hinge of her hips, tongue agonisingly close to her vulva now, and then it was suddenly all over her bum her cheeks pulled apart and her little hole inundated with saliva and oil by her lover's tongue and tiny fingers, burrowing in and licking her all over as promised. Then, as Mei felt full to the brim of bursting passion, of tension, Yuzu proved her other promise true, gently brushing her clitoris once, offhand, with a slick finger, and completely unable to control herself Mei exploded, vision bursting into light and jerking as if she were having a seizure with a guttural groan. One touch and she was gone.

 

Just as she had also told Mei, Yuzu then tucked her braid back and dove into her crotch and anus, fiercely sucking and licking and thrusting across both holes and her little button until she came again, her face now covered in juices, make-up smeared, perfumed with Mei. 

 

Then she knelt obediently on the side of the bed, arms behind her back and plaintively looked at Mei with puppy dog eyes. "Your princess is now under your spell, Mei-Chan. Any command you give, I'll obey like your little pet."

 

She did, holding out her body as Mei tore the dress from her, utterly naked and dripping with anticipation underneath. 

 

And Mei fucked her, with abandon, reckless with arousal and completed fantasy, feeling less constrained than she ever had in her life. Made her beg for more, squeal out her name, and took her every way she could conceive. She let out her hair and used it to bind Yuzu's hands behind her head, helpless, and licked her until she erupted, she crossed their legs over and rubbed their soaking mounds against each other until Yuzu shuddered into submission. She made her fiancée die the little death with two fingers in her bottom and two in her vagina, she spanked her lightly, she made her sing again and again and finished the whole night off tugging her hair as she ground her folds into Yuzu's pretty face, then as she took her with her strap on along the edge of the bed.

 

"Oh Mei, make me your wife! Do me so hard it feels like you'll fill me up with your child. Make my soul pregnant for you!" The thought of Yuzu bearing her child, a thought for the future and one that would require work and deep planning, somehow drove her over the edge, such that she felt her own climax build again as she drove Yuzu to hers.

 

She plunged in, time after time, each producing a squelch and a moan, staring into her lover's green, perfect, princess' eyes as they widened and clamped shut in one final orgasm, followed immediately by Mei's.

 

Then, after topping up on water and salts after their long work out, Mei calmly bundled Yuzu up with her in the blanket and they finished the film.

 

The next morning was as sweet as any. Breakfast in bed (both now dressed in kimonos and a hasty clean-up attempt made to divert the waiter from what they had spent the night doing), followed by a quick dessert of Yuzu pie, then a swim in the resort pool and an hour of revisiting rides in the park.

 

Everything was perfect until they sat down to lunch, only to find it set for three, not two.

 

Mei looked quizzically at her lover, but she was just as bemused, having made the booking herself and for just the two of them.

 

The unspoken question was soon answered.

 

"Hello, child. Children, I guess I should say."

A black haired beauty, with all the emotion of an ice statue, and the expression of a hawk deciding whether to let two rabbits live or not, entered from the side, her posture demanding they stand to greet her. Yuzu gasped and in that instant, Mei knew why. Her face would be familiar, by relation if nothing else. It was her own, but crueler. Colder. Her stomach twisted and she felt a confusing cascade of emotion: fear, anger, love, sadness. A need for answers and for affection. And yes, even a little hate.

 

A face Mei hadn't seen in years, but was imprinted in her mind, attached to guilt and feelings of inadequacy. To abandonment. 

 

"I hear from my ex-father-in-law that there's a wedding you want to talk to me about. Well, I say a wedding, I'm not sure this fling between two silly schoolgirls not mature enough to get over their girlish sapphic urges counts. Why should I give it my blessing?"

 

Her mother. 


	26. Chapter 26

Mei froze, inside and out. 

 

_ I am not ready for this. This is a confrontation I need to prepare for. Oh god.  _

 

Yuzu's hand was on hers. She must be crushing it like a vice in her shock, but after a moment of tightness, Yuzu gave her a light squeeze and reverted to the gentle stroking of her knuckles. Yuzu was here for her. And as this concerned their wedding, this confrontation was for both of them.

 

"How can you talk to me like that? After all these years?" Some fragment of her mind that was still working managed to force words out, almost spat, just about tempered with the barest courtesy. This wasn't like her. She felt numb on the surface but with a furnace, no, a tempest of ice, fire and wind, emotions so varied it was hard to pin any down, seething and roiling underneath. It felt like random flashes were fighting to get out past her controlled facade, her shield that she used to protect herself from the strength of her feeling,a veneer now. She was struggling to control which one would emerge, and right now her fury was winning out.  

 

"Oh please. Walking out on your was the best thing I could have done for you. And I don't take criticism from silly little girls. You're supposedly intelligent, Mei, try to act like it."

 

That condescension piled on her anger, but also flashed her back to being ignored, patronised as a child, the indifference cutting her to her core and freezing her once again. She couldn't make a sound, paralyzed by her tumultuous clashing thoughts, and anxiety building up. She could hear snippets of cutting remarks from her childhood, felt internal walls closing in on her mind, cold and dark, her vision narrowing and her head pounding.  She felt physically sick. Then a warmth pulled her through it, warmth around her chest and in her ears. She realised that in her silence, her impotence to defend herself, to say what she wanted to say, Yuzu had leapt to her aid, her voice thawing the ice in Mei's mind and chest, her arms warm hugged around her. 

 

"... you don't know her, mother or not, and that's your own fault. And don't try to act like you don't care. I know you do." 

 

Mifuyu, for that was her mother's name, though what family name she took now, Mei had no idea, responded to that with a sneer. "Do you know me so well, minx? What makes you think you can read my mind?"

 

Mei's lover, her beloved, stood firm, as Mei still recovered, guarding her with the fierceness of a lioness. "Because I know Mei. And you're more like her than you know." She took a step forward. "She used to use an icy facade to hide when she couldn't handle her feelings, and she looked and sounded just like you do now. Tell me I'm wrong." 

 

Silence. 

 

"That's what I thought. Now stop bullying her. It hurts her more than you know, and you've done enough." 

 

"It seems I underestimated you, child."

 

_ Join the club, it's half of Tokyo. _

 

"Be quiet please, Mifuyu-San. It's Mei's turn to talk, and you owe it to her. Mei-Chan, I'm right here."

 

_ I love her so much. How did I ever not? She's kind, and brave, and determined, willing to learn and change, to change me. And, oh, so beautiful with that defiance in her eyes _ . With her light hair full of volume today and her eyes burning intensely like witch's fire, she did look like a proud lioness right now.  _ I'm ready to talk now, thanks to you, Yuzu my love. _

 

"Thank you Yuzu. But she's always been like this, even when I was tiny I can only ever remember contempt, irritation or regret in her eyes when she looked at me. I know I was, am, a strange child but what did I ever do to make you hate me? Leave me?"

 

Mifuyu rolled her eyes. "I never hated you Mei. I tried, and in my own way I did and do still, love you. And it wasn't you that I regretted. It was what you represented. In the end I needed to do what was right for me, and it wasn't to give up my aspirations to be with a man I didn't love or like much and to babysit a toddler I couldn't stop blaming for my lost dreams."

 

Well. That was blunt. She had to admire her mother in a way. A bit of her did so for following her career dreams, though most of her still burned from the abandonment, the betrayal. But all of her admired her for being so candid, so soon. No excuses, no hesitation. She told it as it was. 

 

_ At least she said she loved me, for the first time, in a backhanded way. But then, I've always found that hard to say to anyone too, haven't I?  _

 

"What I did was best for you anyway. I was, and would have continued to be, a terrible mother. And I couldn't separate you from your father in my mind. A constant reminder that as a woman my place was to be sold off for marriage, loveless sex and babymaking, whilst he got to pursue his career. I needed to leave to be myself, and you needed me to leave so you wouldn't be shadowed by my burdens, becoming cold and bitter like me."

 

_ You don't get to decide that I was better off without a mother's love!  _

 

Mei was more incensed now, understanding the need to be yourself but not the binary way that had led to everything else.  _ Maybe I learnt that from Yuzu, maybe I'm being too harsh on her, but as she says, I'm just a child, and she's an adult, she should have known better. _

 

"That happened anyway! I thought I didn't deserve any love, because you never told me you had any for me! Papa galavanting off to live his own life and leaving all the responsibility and duty to my family on me, after you  **both** abandoned it, that made it worse, but having your mother, the one person who is meant to love you no matter what, leave me when I was what, 4? Life never stopped hurting since. You could have left him but stayed in touch. Visited. Said I mattered to you, once! You think this was better for me? With nobody who knew what to say when I had my first period? Nobody I could talk to when I realized I liked girls but was going to be given to someone as a business arrangement, just like you were, when my fiancée pressured me for the first time, in every moment when I needed a woman in my life? No. That's rubbish, mother. I understand, better than you probably realise, the fear of losing your future, of being locked into a relationship because your family demand it, of struggling to allow yourself to feel and express that feeling. But I needed you. And leaving Papa and deserting me are not the same thing!"

 

That typhoon became a Tsunami, foamy anger on bottomless, turbulent sadness, released now in one direction with no way of holding back. But Mei had grown infinitely in these past months, had been grown by Yuzu, and though she couldn't steer away, she could now ride the waves. Keep her control as the emotion burst free, if not her composure, in a way that once would have been unthinkable. She didn't disappear into that roiling sea and neither did she freeze herself out. She rode the waves.

 

Her mother couldn't meet her gaze. She knew it was probably intense. Yuzu had called it her "divine intensity" once  - "When you are fully focussed on something, you look like a goddess, truly. Unresistable." Immediately melted, Mei had made passionate love to Yuzu on that occasion, commanding her as her goddess, which Yuzu had moaned with pleasure obeying, worshipping her sacred grove between her legs, completely devoted to her every whim. "You are my goddess, Mei, when you want to be. Or my sweet darling that I'll protect when you need that."

 

At last, Mei's mother spoke up, seeming… contrite? "You are right. I really am sorry. I kept telling myself that this was the best thing, so often that I genuine believed it, but deep down I knew it was self-deception. In my defence, I really couldn't have handled seeing you, being reminded of what had happened but also what I was leaving, at the start. That's a weak excuse but it's all I have. And it just became harder and harder to shift that inertia. Can you forgive me it?"

 

Yuzu was holding her now, rubbing her back lightly. This was still just about in public, despite the near empty room, so discretion was key. "Possibly. You hurt me, you really hurt me, and in a way that has kept on hurting for years. But you're here now. To talk about my 'fling between silly schoolgirls.'" Mei enunciated that with venom and for all her prior sternness, Mifuyu winced. "We aren't going to get 18 years of therapy and relationship repair done now, but we can talk about the reason we were looking for you."

 

She matched Mei's gaze now, inscrutable. "Yes. I'm sorry I phrased it insensitively, but my concerns are honest and valid. You are children, Mei."

 

Yuzu spoke up now. "Mei is one of the most organized and mature people I have ever met, she's not like an ordinary girl. If you knew her better you'd know she would never make a decision like this lightly."

 

"Really? And what about you, girl? I can believe it of Mei, but are you more mature than one's typical teenager? You don't look it."

 

That misunderstanding, that slight on Yuzu, lashed Mei emotionally.  _ You don't know her. You don't know either of us. _

 

"Yes. Yes she is. Yuzu is easy not to take seriously but is all hidden depths. She is brave, determined and more honest about and true to herself than anyone I know. She has taught me to be more honest with myself. Honestly, I have never met someone else like her."

 

"All teenagers think that. It's still too young for you to make a choice!"

 

"It wasn't too young for other people to make a choice for me, when it suited the family. A bad choice, the first time, might I add. Well, being men I guess both were but the first man was not good to me."

 

"That's different. They were selected pragmatically, not sentimentally, to support the business and to protect you."

 

Mei wasn't impressed. "Is that what you needed, at my age, a man to protect you? That didn't work out so well. I would need someone to protect me from the man they placed above me. Look, mother, I know the burden not marrying some older man to support the school could have on the business. And I will take up that burden. As for my age and Yuzu's, we are expected to make decisions that affect our whole lives at 18. People get pregnant, fight in wars, and everyone decides, on mostly a whim, their education and career path. The idea that two people in love can't decide about that aspect of their future is ridiculous. Yes, we will change, and change together, but that's the case at every age, and you love a person knowing that across their whole life they will change."

 

"What about you changing? Are you sure that what you want now, what you love now, will be the same in 5 years?"

 

Yuzu. "Mei knows herself very well, and has been through a lot to shape that. I know myself as well. Bits will change but the core will stay the same. And if it doesn't, we will work past it however hard we know it may become."

 

Mifuyu frowned and took a different tack, Mei's confidence growing all the time. "Ok, what about your careers? They will be harder, being with a woman not a man."

 

"Not harder than suppressing my sexuality and living with it. And the world is changing."

 

"What about when your marriage, or family, affects your career, like it did mine."

 

Luckily, they had talked about this. "I don't think it will, but when we want children, as a joint decision, we will talk further about who does what." Yuzu chimed in. "For the moment, I would step back and Mei keep working, but these are things to tackle together, talking about it, not as individuals."

 

Mifuyu pressed on. "But what about you, Yuzu? If Mei asks you to give up your career for her when different pressures come from different angles."

 

"That won't happen, and..." 

 

"But…"

 

Mei interrupted herself now, with more force, with the feeling that was building up. "Like Yuzu said, that won't happen. We will make things work, and life is always full of compromise and tough choices. That isn't specific to us, or our age or our being female."

 

"I was talking to Yuzu, dear. How do you know it won't happen? Things that aren't planned happen all the time, look at me."

 

Yuzu took a deep breath, then cantered ahead. "I don't know. You can never know. But you have to trust. I trust Mei. I have faith in our relationship. And we can do that, and know that we will make compromises for each other because, with all respect, unlike you we are choosing this and we are in love."

 

Mother smiled, not a mocking smile or a sardonic one, but a mirthless smile nonetheless. "Ah, yes, love. Again, you are 18 and in, what, your first proper relationship. If this marriage is about love, which is fine, rather than practicality, then how can you possibly know love?"

  
  



	27. Chapter 27

"How can you tell me, with confidence, that this is love and not infatuation? What you think is love probably is not."

 

_ Probably is not?! _ Mei had had enough of people presupposing they knew what ran through her mind, her heart. Perversely, she doubted she was even capable of mere infatuation. She could appreciate beauty and sexual attraction, though she'd never really felt attracted to anyone before Yuzu had won her over (and at the beginning that had been mostly curiosity), and she could open her heart to another soul (well only one that she knew of) and fall for their personality, but she didn't think she could feel true attraction and certainly not sexual desire, lust, the wish to make love than find an excuse to use sexual contact to numb her hurts, without being attracted to their soul, and she struggled to let just a bit of anyone in. As for Yuzu, she suspected, no she knew, that she had started as infatuated, had acted obsessively at one point, but she had felt that raw metal shaped into the alloy of love, slowly altered over time, had seen the change in her. It was what had allowed her to truly fall in love back, Yuzu discovering who she truly was, forcing her way through the barriers and peeling off the layers, and seeing her not only accept her, flaws and all, but care for her all the more for seeing beneath the facade. 

 

_ But how to say this? _ Mei struggled to talk about how she felt at the best of times, and still felt drained from her earlier outburst to be honest. And this, talking about love, about how she felt about Yuzu to someone else in front of Yuzu… that was hard. 

 

_ I'll have to do it on my wedding day. Is that not enough? Why do I owe this woman, this mother who was never there, anything? _

 

Before she could work out how to start, and whether she would comply with the demeaning demand or not, Yuzu, lion-hearted, broke the silence first. 

 

"We can't know. But as we said, you have to have faith, to trust, sometimes. And I may be young, and I've never felt that I've been in love before, but we call a number of different things love and we do that for a reason: they are all versions of the same thing."

 

She took up Mei's hand and gave a smile that lifted the doldrums of her heart, lifted up the murk she was feeling as she struggled to articulate what Yuzu meant to her, and her brave kindness answered Mei's internal question. 

 

_ She is my golden Sun. I've heard it before as a cliche, but it's true. She makes my life brighter, more alive. She helps the good things in me grow, shines a light on the good things about me when I've kept them hidden from myself. Warms me when I am cold. Thaws me when I am icy. Shines out to me, calling me when she is far away and filling me with life. Before Yuzu,I was, I felt half alive. But now my soul is whole and even though I struggled with my feelings at first, found the love painful, scalding, now every second is better for her being in it. _

 

She'd have to remember that, though she was sure she could never say something so poetic out loud in front of anyone but Yuzu. Her Sun, eyes full of light and golden hair a corona around her devoted, determined face, continued to speak.

 

"I know I've loved my friends, felt the companionship we share, the feeling that we would always help and support and protect each other. My mother, both fathers too, for their unconditional comfort, their sacrifice to make my world better. And other things. I have known those loves, that you would never deny, and I know my feeling towards Mei are like that, but richer. I feel the love towards her as a friend and as a sister as well as my attraction to her, but I also feel this sense of mutual, if incomplete understanding. Of wanting to share a life, spend a life and make a life together. I was infatuated with Mei once, and I know how different this feels to that. And I've seen and felt how Mei acts with me like nobody else. I've felt her love and I have faith in it and in my own. Have you ever felt love, Mifuyu-San? To know what it is and lecture me on it?"

 

That ending was bold, and betrayed genuine outrage in how Yuzu was feeling, but then if Yuzu felt something was unjust. And as troublesome as it could be, that inability not to act was one of the things Mei loved about her.

 

Listening to Yuzu describe her love for her had left her on the verge of tears,her own love, this thing she called love, hot inside her body. But the love Yuzu described, whilst recognisable, was subtly different to what she herself felt. 

 

"That's it!" She hadn't meant to speak that allowed, but given the scenario and the day they'd just had, Mei was finding her usual restraint near impossible. "It's senseless to talk about love as though it were a single feeling that we all experience in the exact same way. Trying to relay to a third party what love feels like, how one knows that what they instinctively feel as love is actually that, it's impossible. We can't even know for sure whether we see the same thing as the colour blue, and basic emotions like sadness and happiness are inherently internal - we assume for convenience that what we feel when we say those words is the same, but we probably have a slightly difference emotion for each of us." That was European philosopher Wittgenstein's Private Language concept, or an approximation of it. "For something as complex and multifaceted as love, the idea that it should be a homogenous feeling is hard to justify. But what I feel with Yuzu is unique, I've never felt remotely that way with anyone before. She is a very different person to me, but when I am with her it feels like we are whole together, like a compound stronger than its elements. Whether through passion or compassion, she makes the world seem more real and me feel more alive. I can't know for sure that someone else would call this love, but I do, and it feels so instinctive, not a belief or something that can be rationalised, but an intrinsic part of me. Love for Yuzu, an aspect of Mei."

 

Her mother had started with narrowed eyes, but visibly softened throughout. "You may both be right. You may be crushingly wrong, but nothing good in this life isn't worth fighting for and taking a risk on. Personally I'd advise taking things a bit slower until you've lived apart from your parents- well, Mei I guess you practically have but it's not the same - and have supported each other through changes like University, starting work… but I won't patronise you again, and I won't make presumptions about your feelings or relationship. How about this: I'm happy to support your marriage, but promise me you'll think a bit about exactly when you want to get married. You don't need to do it now, though I understand why you want to. You'll still be together without it, you'll be everything you are to each other. If you take some time, days or weeks, to work out why  **now,** and you still want to do it soon, then so be it. But things should have reasons, especially life-changing things. And if you wait two years, my approval won't even matter."

 

Mei looked deep into her eyes then, mirrors of her own twilight sky. "No. It won't be needed, but it will still matter."

 

It was true. Mifuyu could hardly count as Mei's Mama, hadn't raised her and had been absent from the key parts of her life, but she was still a part of who she was, for bad in terms of her baggage, and for good. She could see the similarities in her, couldn't claim that she had no part of her, that she owed her nothing. And even the harsh lessons had shaped her into who she was now. And she cared about her, about what she thought. It wasn't the most important thing, but Mei did want her blessing, and wanted her to be back in her life in some small way, though she wasn't willing to forgive her unconditionally. 

 

This was one reason she knew she had agreed to the idea of marriage that, typically, Yuzu had eagerly proposed in a way that from many others would be hasty. A wedding was in part an event where people showed their support for a couple, swore to help them and inherently gave them their approval to some degree. Marriage was a concept in which a society did the same. That was why gay marriage was such a big deal, to her at least, why marriage and "civil partnership" had different connotations to many people. Why people asked their spouse's parents for their blessing before proposing. It was a chance to show they were loved, not tolerated. Appreciated, not allowed. That it was ok to be what they were and love who they loved. Pretending that her mother's opinion didn't matter in that context, that she wanted validation from friends and family and from the nation and the world, but not from her, that would be disingenuous. 

 

That honesty had a profound effect on Mifuyu though. Eyes widening, and glassing with a teary sheen, she looked shocked, and time froze for a moment before a thing happened that blew Mei away. She broke down, sobbing, and made as if to hug the girls before catching herself and forcing the tears away with strength of will. 

 

"Just tell me once you've had a chance to consider it properly. I'll support you whatever you do, but I am the proof that marriage taken up badly can cause harm to many. Don't make my mistakes."

 

"I promise, no matter what happens, I won't do that. What are mistakes for if not to learn?"

 

With that, feeling exhausted but somehow complete, a sense of achievement hanging just past the emptiness that being frank had left, Mei excused herself to the bathroom, noticing with interest but not suspicion that her mother whispered in Yuzu's ear as she did.

 

On returning, Mifuyu was gone, leaving a message on a folded piece of paper, and Yuzu at the table waiting patiently and happily with their first course. 

 

She knew Mei enough to refrain from chatter or dissecting the conversation they had just had, letting her fiancée recuperate in peace as they finished their delectable meal. 

 

They just relaxed, taking in the spectacular view of the parks, after that, until Mei felt rested enough to ask what Mifuyu had told Yuzu. The long conversation about the timing of the wedding could wait. It would be too much to manage now, and to be honest they had spoken about much of it before. Yuzu went red, but answered unflinchingly.

 

"She threatened me if I didn't look after you, then said I was a lot more than she'd expected of me, that she respected my 'guts' and that you had chosen well. Honestly it was sweet and scary at the same time."

 

Mei smiled. She had chosen well, if you could call it a choice. Loving Yuzu was as inherent to her now as being a lesbian was. 

 

Before leaving, Mei opened the paper, letting Yuzu read with her. It was neat but a little smudged, clearly written quickly.

 

" **_Mei. I was scared about today. I knew you might hate me, and didn't know how I'd feel seeing you, but I'm glad I saw you. You are stronger than I had ever imagined, and I am proud of you. Leaving your father was the best choice I have ever made, but leaving you the way I did was the worst. I hope that you can forgive me and thank you for being so honest today. Your mother, if you'll have me_ ** ." 

 

It finished with a phone number, and Mei signed the unsigned message with a single tear drop. Sad or happy, she wasn't sure. Her emotions were a mess after all that. 

 

Mei was left with a sense of relief as they took the train home. She'd conquered a genuine fear, a millstone around her neck. She felt optimistic about the future. But she knew that soon she would have to confirm what that future would be and confirm it. 

 

That made her anxious briefly, but the loving arms of Yuzu, the warmth of her Sun, washed it away as they lulled each other to sleep. The future was scary, but in Yuzu's arms, everything was beatable.

 

_ Whether we marry this year or later, I know how much I love you. I can't imagine a world without you. And I won't let anyone stand in the way of that any more. That scared Mei, trapped by duty and by insistence that the world wouldn't welcome us, she is gone. And I have my mother to thank for the last bit of that process. And our mother to thank for showing me faith.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How much more do people want?
> 
> I can probably finish the story off in a few more chapters, stretch it out with sex stuff to 10, or go on indefinitely
> 
> If I finish it, I will likely come back a few times for post-marriage one shots (all in the same continuity as my story) that will be all fluff and happiness and sexiness :)


End file.
